Fanfiction ► Freaky Psychic Girl

[Faith Crest]

Crimson

Crimson​

​

Faith Crest moved to New York one year ago. Ever since she arrived, there's been destruction and disaster that she's had to clean up. Why? Because of the fact that she's "special" just like her dead mother. She's psychic. Her friends discovered this shortly after meeting her, but it didn't stop them from not liking her. They are the only ones, except for Patricia Musso, Faith's godmother, who know her secret. The problems that Faith has encountered have been pretty much minor. Now there is an even greater threat that will take the world by storm.

As more "special" people emerge from their hiding places, Faith is left to deal with their accidental and intentional accidents. Angelus and Mutator are just two of the many examples of people she will have to stop from causing destruction and devastation to the city of New York. But underneath it all, there is a deeper meaning. Now something has just begun throughout the world, which will only have five factors.

War.

Blood.

Vengeance.

Power.

Courage.​

Now Faith will find the hero within to bring herself to face the ultimate challenge of fighting for what she believes in. Can she do it with the help of her friends and embracing the powers that she has? Was she born to do something?

Chapter 1: New Beginnings​

Hallways, Haven Middle School

Haven Middle School was located in New York City. It harboured many students, but however, there were a few of these students who weren’t your average everyday people. As the usual popular girls walked through the hallways putting people down by the way people looked, talked or acted like, there was one girl who was eyeing them very closely like she always did. This girl was an eighth grader who spent the majority of her life probably either relaxing or trying to save her own life along with the others around her. Her name was Faith Crest.

Faith’s appearance did not really endorse the other students around her. It was only a year ago that she was the new girl on the scene and she had been the victim of many rumours. Fortunately, she had picked a good group of friends to hang around. At least that was something she didn’t have to worry about anymore. As she watched the popular girls go by, she groaned and felt tempted to use her powers on them. If it hadn’t been for thinking of the consequences, then she would have gone ahead. But the part about the powers was actually true.

The young fourteen-year-old was psychic. She could use telepathy, telekinesis, fly and also have visions of the future. Sometimes, Faith could even use mind control, although this would drain her of plenty of energy – and it would take time to master that. When the girls had gone, she slammed her locker shut and then walked to class. Today was her history test and she hadn’t really been studying lately. There had been so many sleepless nights for Faith and even her closest friends knew that. And speaking of those closest friends, they knew that she had powers. No one else did.

History Class, Haven Middle School

“Hey, Faith,” said a guy who looked like he could handle some pretty hard and physical tasks. “You studied for that history test we got now?” When he noticed her cold look, he backed off and raised his hands. “Hey! Don’t look at me! I only saw you look beat lately. You gotta take a chill pill, Faith.”

“Filden, the next time you say that, I’ll possess you,” said Faith with a glance of warning expressed upon her face. She looked up to see that their history teacher, Mr Lax, was giving out their tests already. Damn it, can’t I just skip back to yesterday and study then? I know I have psychic powers, but gosh! Can’t I at least freeze time or something? She noticed Filden looking at her again and as soon as she faced him, he had looked down at his test. “Filden Gurito, I caught you again.”

“You seriously got to stop doing that,” said the girl sat next to Filden, who Faith instantly recognised as another one of her close friends, Dawn Turner. She had known her to be quiet and hard working, yet pleasant to be around. “Filden, stop bothering Faith. It’s bad enough that she has to save people on a daily basis –”

“Are we talking or something?” interrupted Mr Lax, who only looked too happy to throw the three of them in detention. When Faith, Filden and Dawn shook their heads, he walked to his desk and sat down. “Now, class. Your test begins NOW.”

Glancing nervously at Filden and Dawn, where else could Faith turn to for help? She could have easily used her telekinetic powers to levitate the answers to her desk, but what use would that be? Mr Lax would find out that she was cheating or even worse, he would find out her dreaded secret. Filden and Dawn wouldn’t help her, so who would? Faith looked desperately at Kamui Shiro, the silent enigma of the class.

I’m sorry, but it’s your fault you didn’t get to study, he thought, as he projected his thoughts to her. Better luck next time, Faith. Ask someone who’s going to care.

One more person was available to her and that was Rene Herrod. Rene was the type to help Faith out, especially with her normal life. She looked at him desperately, whilst Mr Lax wasn’t looking. Rene looked like he was in deep thought, but then stopped thinking when he realised that Faith was looking at him.

Sorry! Sorry, Faith, he realised, looking directly at her. You just have to remember what Mr Lax was saying. C’mon, it can’t hurt to get a little mind control on the old git, can it? Just tap into your power like Kamui said. When he saw Kamui looking and knowing that he could sense something going on, Rene held his head down and pretended to be doing his test. Rene didn’t look at Faith again, but still continued to project his thoughts to her. It’d do us all some good if you could just control him and then get us out of class early.

“Fine,” muttered Faith. But let’s see what questions I can answer over the damn World War Two and then I’ll steal the answers from Mr Lax, even though I think it’s wrong. But hey! This is a damn emergency!

Mr Lax looked up at Faith straight away and crossed his arms, as he relaxed in his computer chair. “Miss Crest, I would refrain from asking your classmates the answers,” he said. “I assume that you HAVE actually studied the paper in general?”

“Oh yes, Mr Lax,” nodded Faith. God, I hate you. “I studied it all the way through.” That’s right, Faith, put the fake personality on. He has to be so mean to me all the time. I so cannot wait to graduate and get to high school. “I’ll be, uh … answering the test.”

When Mr Lax buried himself by reading a book, Faith knew that now was her chance. She tried hard to control him, but it backfired. Instead of being able to control him, a statue of Prime Minister Winston Churchill went flying into the glass portrait of King Henry VIII. Everyone jumped and screamed, but so did Mr Lax. Faith hadn’t answered a single question on her test paper.

“Go,” said Mr Lax, “and get out of here. It’s not safe with all that glass shattered.”

Hallways, Haven Middle School

“I can’t believe how selfish you can be,” sighed Kamui, as he, Faith, Dawn, Filden and Rene walked through the hallways. The five of them had a free period now – and had no better way to spend it other than talking about what had happened in history class. “I was really getting into answering the question about Hitler and Stalin. I can’t believe we have to retake the test ever since you did that!” But Dawn, Filden and Rene were sniggering. They were the irresponsible ones. “It’s not funny, guys.”

“Ok, but so what?” shrugged Faith. “I get visions all the time of people needing my help and I have to … help them … you know? It’s not my fault I get the damn visions. I have to use my powers for some good, right?”

“It’s always about you,” continued Kamui. “I just don’t understand. It’s always about you and your powers. Why isn’t there anything about me, Dawn, Filden or Rene in any of our conversations? We have to keep this a secret all the time. Why don’t you tell someone else? I’m fed up of having to play secret keeper.”

“Kamui, lighten up!” smiled Rene. “It’s cool that Faith has powers and all, but one day, she might not be the only one. Sure, she’s out of the ordinary, but come ON! She does try to live a normal life after all!”

“I need to go cool off,” assumed Kamui, sighing again and scratching his black hair that was quite messy, “and think about this. I’ll see you guys later.”

“What IS his problem?” said Filden, watching him leave. “Besides, I hear something going on. Weird, eh? Faith didn’t even sense it from a mile away.” He ran over to the window to see a fight going on outside. “There’s a fight going on outside! Shall we watch?”

“Seriously, Filden,” said Dawn, sighing. “You’re just as bad as Rene.”

“Hey! What’d I do now?” said Rene, raising his hands in innocence. “I did nothing!”

“Are you going to stop the fight, Faith?” asked Filden. “You know, like you always do?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Faith, but then put her hand to her head and closed her eyes. The others couldn’t notice it, but she did. She was in pain because there was something out that wasn’t human. She could hear its thoughts. “Let’s go.” She opened her eyes and was the first to walk out.

“She’s hiding something,” assumed Dawn straight away. “Well, let’s go see what this is about then …”

 

[Thelonepickle]

-One boy has black hair.
-Another boy is muscled.
-One girl smiled.

That's ALL I know about how your characters look. How can this be, you ask?

...There's no description in this at all.

And frankly, it's boring.

 

[Faith Crest]

-One boy has black hair.
-Another boy is muscled.
-One girl smiled.

That's ALL I know about how your characters look. How can this be, you ask?

...There's no description in this at all.

And frankly, it's boring.

I took your criticism and done what you advised. I've added quite a few descriptions in this chapter and made it longer than the first one.

Chapter 2: Another Angelic Face​

Campus, Haven Middle School

But even as she hurried outside to see what was going on, Faith held back and concealed herself in a small gap between two buildings. She watched as Filden, Dawn and Rene ran off to see what the fight was about. When many more people had run off through the campus to see what was going on, Faith stepped out of the gap and went to the bathroom.

Girls Bathroom, Haven Middle School

After turning on the tap and throwing the cold water on her face, Faith looked into the mirror to find her own reflection staring right back at her. Sometimes, she would often think that someone or something else would be there instead. But luckily, it was only her reflection. The same black-haired, blue-eyed, tall and skinny girl was looking right back at Faith. She was wearing a purple t-shirt, jeans, a blue jacket and sneakers.

Even though she had been staying and living in New York City for a year now, Faith was grateful that she hadn’t changed a single bit. She was still friendly, pleasant, caring and kind to everyone. What made her become an even better person was finally getting the chance to have friends like Filden, Dawn, Kamui and Rene. Faith never had that chance before coming here to Haven Middle School. After all, moving around the country with her godmother was a difficult task enough …

Once she had brushed her hair and straightened herself up, Faith felt that it was time to go back outside and see what all the fuss was about. There was only one problem, however: nearly the whole school would be there, if not all.

Campus, Haven Middle School

The very first thing that Faith sensed were the fears amongst those fighting – and there was plenty of it. Then she remembered how she sensed something inhuman before they had all rushed out on to the campus. She noticed that Filden and Rene were already encouraging the fight much to Dawn’s annoyance. Oh, how many times that she had already seen her friends and their appearances.

First of all, Filden was like a brother to Faith – the brother that she never had. He was taller than her, had short brown hair that was neatly presented and had nosey blue eyes. He was wearing a blue sweater, baggy jeans and sneakers. Faith noticed that he was yelling, “FIGHT! FIGHT! KICK HER ASS!” and this was only annoying not only Faith, but also Dawn even more. To even think that one of her friends would encourage a fight that she was about to stop was far beyond unbelievable.

“Do you really want to do that, Filden?” said Faith, but the yelling of the other students drowned her voice out. There was only one way to get through to Filden and it was the old fashioned way. I am so going to kick your ass, Filden Gurito.

“I’m sorry,” gulped Filden, laughing nervously upon noticing her and was no longer yelling with the others. “Well, uh … you’ve got to stop this! Right?”

“But of course she does,” piped up Dawn, who had her arms crossed. Like Filden, Faith took in her appearance, too. Now Dawn was like a little sister to Faith, she was the only one who was closest to her and the one who she shared her secrets with. The pair of them shared everything together. This girl was shorted than Faith by a few inches, had long blonde hair with one part platted into a braid and bore brilliant sighted green eyes. Dawn was wearing a white t-shirt with a black skirt that was at knee length and pink shoes. If there were anyone Faith needed to go to for fashion tips, then it would always be Dawn. “You ARE going to stop this, right? I mean, you can’t let it all happen.”

“Dawn, of course I’m not going to let it happen!” argued Faith. “If I don’t, then someone is going to get their ass seriously kicked.”

Suddenly, everyone heard and saw one guy throw a punch at the other. The guy that had been punched went stumbling back to the wall next to Faith. She couldn’t believe who he was!

“DRACUS!” she yelled, pulling him back on to his feet with Filden’s help.

“Faith … hi,” said Dracus Ryu weakly. He was taller than Faith, had spiky blonde hair and brown eyes. He was currently wearing a bloodied yellow t-shirt that had a fire on it, grey combat pants and sneakers. “You know … Eric said something really mean about you … couldn’t let him say it … so I wanted to beat him up …”

“Who said something bout Faith?” demanded Rene, who pushed his way through the crowd to reach his friends. Yet he was a little out of control and on the wild side, Rene was known to be caring and supportive of his friends. He was taller than all of them, had short red hair and brown eyes. Rene cracked his neck and checked that his shirt, black pants and shoes weren’t dirty. When he had done so, he looked at Dracus directly in the eye. “C’mon, Dracus. What’s Eric been saying now?”

“I can fight my own battles, you know!” exclaimed Faith, but then saw Eric coming to finish what he started. She didn’t like the look of him at all, especially since he was one of the taller students of the school, had long black hair with purple streaks and grey cold eyes that looked insane. Oh boy … not Eric again … why can’t he just get a life for once? Remember, Faith, you’re a small defenceless girl who isn’t psychic. This shouldn’t be too bad. She watched Eric crack his knuckles. Right?

“Yeah, I got something to say bout you!” he yelled so loudly that many people covered their ears. However, Faith just grinned and bared it. “I’ve been hearing all these rumours about you, Crest. I’ve been hearing bout how you’re a freak and why you try to make sure that you’re not a freak. Well, guess what? You are a flipping freak! A freak of nature!”

Faith cast a worrying glance towards Dawn, who understood straight away. I hope he isn’t talking about what I think he’s talking about. Just as Eric was about to swing a punch for her, Dracus took the hit when he dived in front of her. He went down to the ground this time. Shocked and confused at why Dracus was doing this, Faith bent down to him.

“Why are you doing this, Dracus?” she whispered. After all, Dracus didn’t know Faith’s secret. She hadn’t considered him as one of her closest friends like Filden, Dawn, Kamui or Rene. But he was still quite a good and loyal friend. “Why are you fighting my own battles? I can take whatever he has to throw at me!”

“But, Faith,” said Dracus, as he wiped the blood that was trickling down from his nose, “I want to protect you. Besides, your secret’s safe with me, Faith. I found out a week ago, anyway …”

Faith looked towards Rene. I need you to go get a teacher now or else Eric is going to seriously beat the crap out of Rene. Before you start arguing, I don’t want to hear any shit about how you’ll be a snitch. Because I’m fed up each time that …

“Ah, Mr Taro!” came the familiar voice of Mr Lax. Everyone turned to see Mr Lax, the history teacher, had arrived on the scene with three more teachers, including the principal. “I see that we’re not following the procedure you promised now, are we?”

From behind Mr Lax and the three other teachers, Faith could make out that Kamui was stood there. Had he called them here? Maybe Kamui wasn’t as bad as she had made him out to be. She had always thought of him as the one thinking of the consequences and not liking to be a secret keeper like the others. Perhaps things could be finally looking up for Faith and Kamui’s friendship.

Eric didn’t look too happy to see Mr Lax with his backup of teachers. Kamui walked over to Faith and the rest of the gang. As Eric was led away to the principal’s office, Dawn helped Dracus up to his feet to see the nurse. When the crowd had all disappeared and slipped back into either their classes or whatever else they were doing, Faith turned to face Kamui. He was only a few inches taller than her, had long black hair that stopped at the bottom of his neck, green eyes and was wearing a black sweater, jeans and sneakers.

“Did you call them?” asked Faith.

“I sure did,” nodded Kamui, who then delved into how he had heard what was going on. “You know how angry I was at everything being about you. Well … there’s something I need to tell you, but let me explain first. I saw Eric shouting something about you and Dracus had it in for him. They started fighting and they carried it on outside. I had to get some teachers, Faith. Besides, he was only mentioning your parents. As if that mattered and –”

But Faith had run off to the bathroom with tears streaming down her face and soaking up her once dry cheeks. Kamui wanted to go after her, but realised what he had done and just sighed to himself. Yeah, damn it, he thought to himself, knowing that Faith was too far away now for her to read his thoughts. I had to bring up her parents by accident. I’m the only one that knows what truly happened to them. I’ll just have to tell who I really am one day …

Hallways, Haven Middle School

For the rest of the day, Faith avoided Kamui – and it was only made easier by the fact that she had no more classes with him. Their free periods weren’t the same either anymore, or at least for that day. As she exited her last class, which had been biology, Faith noticed Kamui trying to make his way through the crowd to reach her.

“Why don’t you want to talk to him?” asked Dawn, who walked with her down the hallways and then were making their way out of the school building. It was now the end of the day. “Did something happen between you two?”

“Just the fact that he said Eric said something about my parents,” said Faith through her pain. He said that it didn’t matter whatsoever. What kind of friend is he?

New York Streets

The streets of New York were as busy as ever. Faith and Dawn lived closer to each other, so they always walked the same way home. Filden, Kamui, Rene and Dracus lived about twenty blocks away from them. As the pair of them delved into deep conversation over what they were going to do this weekend, they stopped when another familiar face had appeared.

“Aye, what do we have here then?” smiled a Scottish fifteen-year-old. Faith and Dawn exchanged dark looks with each other. This was Dave, their classmate who knew how to live his life to the full. He was tall, perhaps a little over six foot, had dark brown spiky hair and brown eyes. “Two lassies on their own walking home. Wouldn’t you think it’s a bit too farfetched?”

“Dave, you seriously need to blend in more with the crowd! Stop saying ‘aye’ and whatever taboo you gotta say here!” protested Dawn over Faith’s laughing.

“Come on, Dawn!” exclaimed Faith when she could control herself. “I’m English and I still have many of my traits that I just can’t get rid of. Dave’s lucky because he’s been here longer than me and hasn’t slipped into the American life completely yet.”

“She’s right, yeah,” laughed Dave nervously. “But eh, what are you two doing tonight?”

“Uh …” began Dawn, but then looked at Faith with concern on her face. Sure, Faith! Tell good old Dave what you’re doing tonight. Tell him that you’re going to make sure that everything’s fine in the city. When she noticed Dave staring at her, Dawn replied quickly. “Oh, I’m not doing anything tonight! I’m just going to get my homework outta the way!”

“What about you, eh, Faith?” asked Dave.

“Nothing, just chilling out with Patricia,” she replied.

“Aye, I hear ya,” he nodded. “You should get out more, though. Tell you what; I’ve got a party tomorrow at mine. Bring all your friends around! We’d have a right laugh! What do you say to that, eh?”

“You overuse ‘eh’ a bit too much, don’t you?” stared Dawn.

“And aye! Oh, aye! I do!” smiled Dave.

“I’ll think about it,” assumed Faith, as they came to the end of the street. “We’ll see you later, Dave. We’re heading over this way.”

“But you better get online on MSN and tell me as soon as, lassie!” said Dave, as he took to the next right and went off down the street to rejoin a group of friends he had previously and purposely lost just to find Faith and Dawn. “GUYS! WE GOT SOME MORE PEOPLE ON FOR TOMORROW! IT’S GONNA BE MINT!” But then he stopped yelling. “But am I bothered whatsoever, Pete?”

“Here we are,” said Dawn ten minutes later when there had been little or no conversation between herself and Faith after their encounter with Dave, “and this is where we part. Darn it, I wish that I were your next-door neighbour sometimes. I’m still trying to convince Mom to move next to you, but she thinks it’s the worst idea ever.”

“Ha … well, tell your mom that it’d be a really good idea,” said Faith, thinking about what kind of neighbour she would have when the house next door would be sold. “I don’t want some old nutcase hanging around my end.”

Musso Residence

Despite the fact that it was called the Musso residence, Faith was still a Crest. She was the last surviving Crest member of her family and her godmother, didn’t want to dampen her spirit by making her a Musso. No, it was the last thing that she felt that Faith needed. As Faith walked in, she dumped her bag on the sofa in the living area and then jumped on the sofa.

“And how many times do I have to tell you to stop jumping on our sofa?” sighed a familiar voice. “Faith, does this have to keep on happening?” Faith laughed when she saw her godmother appear in the doorway. Patricia Musso was a tall and physically fit woman with long brown hair with blonde streaks, green innocent eyes and was quite skinny. She was wearing a tight black sports t-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and her sneakers. “Do I have to keep reminding you what goes on here?”

Faith grinned and stuck her tongue out at Patricia, who just sighed again in response. As she walked in the kitchen, Faith was alone yet again. Normally, she’d be trying to read her godmother’s mind by now, but felt obliged to give herself a rest. Her mind was weakening itself from the amount of stress she had been through today. And before she knew it, Faith had drifted off into an uneasy sleep …

“It’s so hard to be psychic, isn’t it?” smiled Patricia, as she was stood at the doorway again and watched her goddaughter fall asleep on the sofa.

Two hours later, Faith woke up to find herself in her room. Had Patricia carried her up again?

Damn it, she thought to herself. I have a habit to drift off like that.

SMASH.

The glass on the window smashed and went flying into her room. Faith had a split second to react. It was either protect or attack. Her initiative told her to protect, so a barely visible barrier appeared. The glass couldn’t penetrate the barrier and when it stopped spreading across the room, she released the barrier and looked towards the spot where the window had been smashed.

Something weird is definitely going on here, she realised.

“I hope that you’ll learn to protect yourself in the future,” came a dark voice in the distance.

A bright light occurred and blinded Faith temporarily. When the light faded away, she found herself looking up at a young woman who didn’t look so much older than her. The light had weakened Faith and her mind, but she still tried to get to her feet. When she successfully did so, the woman came closer to her and then grabbed her by the throat.

“Let’s see what you’re made of, sweetie,” she whispered in her ear.

“You!” spat Faith through being choked. “The inhuman one!” But she continued to cough. She didn’t say much more because she was about to make the next move.

 

[princess namine]

I like this, it's like a mix between That's So Raven and Harry Potter.

 

[ansemjafar]

Hmm. Very interesting. I like it. Keep up the good work

 

[Haku]

I like the direction I could see this one going.

 

[Faith Crest]

Ok, guys! Here's the next chapter.

Chapter 3: Date To The Dance​

Musso Residence

The battle hadn’t even begun yet, but Faith could notice something glowing in her attacker’s eyes. Was it the same innocence that she had herself? The anger was just about to come, however. Faith usually swung her arm to unleash her telekinetic powers, but there was always the need to squint her eyes in case of an emergency. Obviously in this case, it indeed was.

Once she had squinted her eyes and added her feelings of anger towards that power, the young woman went flying into the wall. Faith was so weak after being suddenly hit like that, so she rose to her feet slowly and wiped the blood that was trickling down her lip. Her assailant was knocked out for now – but the worst part was yet to come, or so Faith thought it was the worst part …

“Faith Catherine Anne Crest, what on EARTH happened up there?” came the loud and yelling voice of Patricia.

She has to seriously give me a break, thought Faith, slapping her hand against her face. It’s only the seventh time that I’ve almost had my room destroyed in the past year. That’s got to be a good record, right? She turned to face her godmother and thought of the excuse quickly. “I was attacked by this woman and I could tell that she is NOT human.”

“So I am to believe you were attacked?” stared Patricia, looking impatient and tapping her foot on the floor. “This is the seventh time where you’ve almost destroyed your room. I can’t keep up with the insurance payments, Faith. I know you’ve been left quite a huge sum of money, but –”

“I’ll pay for all the bills as soon as I’m eighteen,” she insisted. “It’s the least I can do for you, Patricia. You took me in when I was just a baby and raised me as if I was your own. I could have ended up in an orphanage and never been able to control my powers. Patricia, you don’t realise how grateful I am.”

“I know how grateful you are, you’ve mentioned it a million times. All right, I’ll start cleaning up in here. Why don’t you take your enemy someplace else? Say, the rooftops or something?”

“Ha, ha … I don’t think we’re gonna be cleaning up sometime soon.”

“And why is that, Miss Crest?”

“Because our guest just woke up.”

As soon as the young woman began to stir, Faith used her telekinesis to raise her body into the air and float her towards herself and Patricia. The stranger looked quite annoyed, but couldn’t do anything in her powerless position.

“Looks like someone learnt not to mess with me!” she spat.

“Seriously,” said Faith, who looked bored already. “You were better than most of my attackers. But you lose points for your unoriginality, so care to tell me your name or do I have to do some understate digging?”

“Fine! It’s Tulsa,” hissed the young woman, who had the innocence still glowing in her eyes. “My name is Lilac Tulsa and for your information, I wasn’t sent here like the other attackers. I came here … to test you.”

“Test me? I hardly need testing,” glared Faith coldly.

“Tulsa? YOU’RE Lilac Tulsa?” asked Patricia, whose eyes widened even more.

“Good to see you again, Patricia Musso,” whispered Lilac, who looked like that she was pain. “It’s been a good few years, but I guess that you made it out of there, too.”

“Patricia, what is she going on about?” stared Faith.

But Patricia didn’t say anything. She simply ordered her goddaughter to leave the room. No matter how much she wanted to use her powers against her godmother, Faith decided against it. But she would use her telepathy on Patricia if she wouldn’t tell her what was really going on.

An hour passed and Faith was still sitting downstairs on the sofa in the living area impatiently. She was floating objects purely out of boredom and was wondering what on earth what Patricia was doing upstairs. It was now getting quite late. Suddenly, there was the doorbell going and a knock on the door. Faith didn’t even need her powers to tell who was knocking on her door at this time of night.

“Rene,” she sighed, looking at him. “Yeah sure, come in.”

“Did you read my mind or have a vision?” asked Rene, staring at her suspiciously.

“No, you ask each time,” shrugged Faith. “So what’s up?”

“Old Jaggy was saying that there was a disturbance upstairs,” he replied quickly, and scratched his ginger hair as if he was thinking. “Are you all right? You look like you almost get killed again.”

“And Old Jaggy was right because I did get attacked! Some fricking idiot woman called Lilac Tulsa nearly killed me! She said she wanted to test me or something like that. But get this, Rene. She KNOWS Patricia.”

“Since when does anyone round here hang out with Patricia?” laughed Rene.

“Please don’t make me force the ink cartridges to attack you and pour themselves all over your hair,” said Faith. Anyone could tell that she was being sarcastic, but it took being a friend of hers to figure out what she really meant. No, Faith was not being sarcastic. It was a warning to shut up. “I wouldn’t want to touch or harm your ginger hair now, do I?”

“Hey! I hate ginger, anyway,” sighed Rene. “I’m dying it blonde tomorrow.”

“Ok then! Good,” she nodded. “So was there anything else you needed? Patricia is upstairs talking to Lilac now.”

“Yeah, there is,” nodded Rene, gulping. “Uh, I dunno how to say this, Faith, but, um, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it.” He straightened himself up and crossed his arms. “Do you wanna go to the spring dance with me?”

Faith’s eyes widened in surprise. No one’s asked me to the dance yet, she thought. I can’t turn him down, can I? But then again, I was really hoping for Austin to ask me out. Oh yeah, Amber beat me to the punch. Well, Rene is a great guy and all, so why am I nervous around him? Faith, relax and pull yourself together. Her eyes returned to normal and she smiled. Now let’s answer this politely and calmly. “Yes, I’d love to go to the dance with you.”

“Wow, thanks!” smiled Rene. This could be the start of something new. “I know that I’ve only known you a year now, but I’m really looking forward to this dance. So next Friday, I’ll pick you up here at seven and we’ll get there for eight. Ok?”

“Yeah, sure,” she nodded and continued to smile herself. “I need to check on Lilac now, Rene, so I’ll catch you later, ok?”

“Uh yeah, sure!” he said. “Goodnight, Faith.”

As he closed the door, there were butterflies flying around in Faith’s stomach. Sure, she had only known Rene for a year, but she had been crushing on him for a long time. Now with that problem out of the way, she walked upstairs to deal with the next problem.

Little did she know, someone had been watching what had been going on since the moment Lilac attacked to when Rene asked Faith out to the dance. Kamui was hidden, even in the darkness of the Musso residence. He jumped down from the ceiling and then his physical appearance was visible once more.

That Tulsa is bad news, he thought and sighed to himself. I gotta make sure that Faith won’t get herself hurt here. There’s something not right about Lilac Tulsa whatsoever. And so, he crept up the stairs taking care not to step on the creaky stair

 

[ansemjafar]

Interesting story. I liked it. Keep up the greatr work. Hope to be seen soon

 

[Haku]

Another well put together chapter, I hope to see a update soon.

 

[Faith Crest]

Here's the next awaited chapter!

Chapter 4: Working It Out​

Musso Residence

Oblivious to the fact that there would be so much danger occurring to her anytime soon, Faith had decided to take a risk and figure this out. Patricia wasn’t telling her something and she would find out for herself if she had to. As she marched up the stairs, she could only watch in horror, as Patricia went flying from her almost destroyed room all the way into the bathroom across the hall. She was fine – and only hit the wall, but Faith knew that she’d still have a few bruises and maybe some cuts on her body. What she saw next would haunt Faith for the next few hours.

When Faith walked into her room, her eyes widened when she saw that Lilac Tulsa’s appearance had changed completely. Her eyes were a blood red colour, her hair was now black and dark wings had sprouted from her back. There were black markings on her arms and everything about her was demonic. Faith ducked quickly, as Lilac swung her fatal and dark claws at her. Sure, Lilac looked completely dangerous right now, but she was slower this time. When she had the chance, Faith kicked her in the stomach and then watched her crash into the wall. With so much noise going on, she knew that she’d have to put everything back together soon.

As Lilac was about to rise to her feet again, she was forced down by the mighty strength of Faith’s mind. She was being forced to change back into her human form. Faith found a difficult challenge and was slowly losing consciousness herself over forcing Lilac to be herself again. Faith fell to her knees, but didn’t give up on trying to get Lilac to give up the fight. Her hands were shaking a lot and her mind felt like giving up completely. But at the expense of innocent people’s lives? She couldn’t let that happen!

Suddenly, Kamui burst on to the scene and was shaking his head yelling, “No, no! This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be!” to then look in Faith’s direction noticing that she was crumbling under the pressure. He ran towards Lilac and then headbutted her. But then Faith finally fell completely to the ground. Kamui hurried towards Faith to help her get back up, but Lilac had rose back again and was trying to attack Kamui now with her deadly claws.

“Dark Shield!” cried Kamui, as he raised his hand and a dark barrier appeared to protect himself and Faith, whilst it repelled Lilac from harming them. However, the more damage the shield would sustain, the more it would damage Kamui himself. I have to make sure that she’s not harmed … it’s why I’m here after all. At least she won’t be able to hear my thoughts since her mind is too hurt to even use any fraction of its power. He then looked at Lilac, who wasn’t giving up on breaking the barrier. “You might as well give up because I could sit here all night at this rate …”

Faith stirred in his arms and then she opened her eyes to see the dark shield surrounding them. She unexpectedly unleashed a telekinetic wave, which caused Lilac to be thrown against the wall and it happened to Kamui, too. His barrier faded away. How she had managed to do that was unknown to him. Nonetheless and sustaining the bruises and cuts he received from her blow, Kamui rose to his feet and staggered towards her. But even so, Faith threw him back with her mind again.

“Damn, Faith! What IS wrong with you?” he yelled. “I’m on your side here, I’m the one protecting you!”

“I’m not the one aligned to the darkness!” screamed Faith, who then turned her attention to Lilac, who looked like she was up to something. “Don’t make me … go over there and …” But then she fell to her knees. No matter how hard she fought, Faith was weakening fast – and it wouldn’t be long until she would black out. “I’m not going to … let you hurt … Patricia …”

Lilac snarled at Faith. When Kamui ran at her trying to take her down with his fist that had a dark aura surrounding it, she simply grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the bathroom near Patricia. “Idiot child,” she hissed, as she grabbed Faith by the throat and hoisted her up into the air. “My name is not that pathetic Lilac Tulsa. I’ve been searching and looking for the new host much more powerful than this pathetic woman. I am the demon only known as Angelus and you’ll make a perfect host!”

“Host?” whispered Faith. There was so much pain coursing through her entire body right now, but she could care less about that. So this Angelus wanted Faith as her new host? She totally took me by surprise to say the least. I’ll have to deal with her first and then Kamui’s on my list next …

Angelus opened her mouth, but Faith closed her mouth with her hand. Sure, she was choking, but would Angelus kill her after what she had said? If what she had said were true, then she wouldn’t kill Faith. She would need her as her new host. Angelus suddenly dropped her since she was losing her breath. Faith finally had the chance to breathe and then got back on to her feet after being dropped.

Then Kamui appeared again and then stood by Faith’s side. “I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, I know,” he nodded towards her, and raised his hands in defence, “but please don’t hurt me. I am on your side, Faith! Do you really think I’m gonna let another demon try to possess you yet again?”

“Great, Lilac came to test me and Angelus came to possess me,” groaned Faith, slapping herself in the face. “What’s next – Patricia admits that she’s got this whole demon thing going on as well? Will Rene admit that there’s something freaky about him, too? What is this world coming to?” She then turned to face him. “If you really are on my side, then take care of our little problem.” And with that, she slipped down the wall and sat down on the floor. There were so many cuts on her face and blood was all over her clothes. “I’ve never been in a worse situation before.”

“Then I’ll do it,” he agreed, and Angelus came running towards them. “All right, Angelus. Let’s switch you back with Lilac.” He curled his hands into balls and then pointed them in Angelus’s direction. “Soul Switch!” And with that, Angelus collapsed. Both Faith and Kamui watched her transform back into Lilac. “Ok, that was an interesting sight.”

“That’s disgusting,” commented Faith.

“Thanks for asking how I am!” called Patricia, which made them both burst out laughing.

“All right, now what to do with Lilac …” muttered Kamui, who looked like he was in deep thought.

“Just because I can’t read your mind doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten about your little explanation,” said Faith, raising an eyebrow. She knew that after dealing with Lilac and, well, cleaning up the, er … almost destroyed bedroom, Faith would have to talk to Kamui and why she had seen a change in him.

 

[ansemjafar]

That was a na awesome chapter. Keep up the great work.

 

[Atnihs]

such a great fanfiction to read.keep it up AoD

 

[Faith Crest]

I had this chapter done a while ago, so here you go. Some things about Kamui, Patricia and Lilac are explained in depth. James will make his grand entrance in the next chapter!

Chapter 5: Second Chances​

Musso Residence

With Lilac now tied up down in the cellar underneath the ground floor, Faith was putting the finishing touches to restoring her room. The damage was too much for her to handle, so Kamui had helped her clean up. Meanwhile, Patricia was down in the cellar waiting for Lilac to wake up. When they had finished cleaning up the room, Faith and Kamui went downstairs on their way to the cellar. However, they only came to the top of the cellar stairs when she pulled him up and dragged him into the kitchen.

“So what did I do now?” asked Kamui, who looked impatient, as he looked at his watch. “We need to get down and see Lilac, right?” But then he sighed when he saw that she too was looking impatient. “I suppose that this is about the explanation I owe you, right?”

“You bet darn right that it is,” assumed Faith, who took a seat at the kitchen table and offered him a seat. “Sit down and tell me all about it. Patricia’s gonna be fine down there for now.”

Kamui shrugged his shoulders in response knowing that he couldn’t wriggle himself out of this too easily. “Well, here goes then. My life was supposed to be pretty normal, but there was something wrong back in the past. Apparently, one of my ancestors found a way into another dimension and he made himself immortal. The forces of good tried to defeat him, but of course, he could never die. So the higher gods trapped him inside a glass case that he couldn’t escape so easily.”

“So let me get this straight,” she said, as she laughed a little. “Your ancestor found a way to become immortal? If he can become immortal, then why are you like this? Why are you using the darkness? I thought you was a good person, Kamui!”

“But I AM a good person!” he emphasised. “Besides, you didn’t let me finish off what I had to say.”

Faith sat down like an impatient schoolchild. How could one of her best friends be using the darkness? She had always known Kamui to be so normal, pretty much the only one out of their group who was the most normal. So why was it that it had taken until now for her to notice something wasn’t right with him? She was now suspecting him to be evil. After all, the only monsters she had seen being evil and using darkness were the dark angels. Yes, monsters did exist in her world. This world. The cursed world that she was ultimately doomed to save on a daily basis.

“His wife was left with an only child,” continued Kamui, “and so she felt ashamed of being tied to a man whose own power corrupted him in the end. She sent the child away and then killed herself. The higher gods felt sympathy for this child and so they got him safely to a loving couple that couldn’t have children. Although darkness would run through the child’s veins, they’d never use it for good. What makes the difference between you and I, Faith, is that yes, I am full of darkness, but I use it for good. It all depends on how you’re raised.” Faith sent him a suspicious look, but it was one that Kamui had seen far too many times. “You can suspect me all you want, Faith, but have I ever tried to hurt you?” She shook her head, but still looking furious. “Have I ever tried to hurt anyone else according to your knowledge?” She shook her head again. Kamui was close to ending his story. “For one thousand years, each child that was born had the power of darkness. The higher gods made them guardians to special people who used their powers for good and were solely selfless. You’re selfless; Faith, and you know it. The higher gods see something special in you and they appointed me as your guardian.”

“Guardian? I’ve been fricking fighting for my life for the past seven years!” yelled Faith. “I don’t need this whole ‘higher gods’ crap piled on me right now! I’ve got a half demon upstairs that could’ve killed Patricia and destroyed the place tonight. You really think that this is going to make me feel better? You’re absolutely wrong. Until you prove that you’re really good, you can consider our friendship over.”

The hatch was sealed – and Kamui knew his fate was, too. He watched Faith walk to the door and open it. He knew where he was not invited. Gazing into her lost eyes of innocence, he shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll prove it all to you,” he murmured, and then walked out the door. After hearing the door slam behind him, he sighed to himself and thought about the consequences he had caused by just appearing and showing his powers. They told me that I had to somehow break the news to her, but I didn’t want it to be like this. If I can never prove myself to Faith, then what good am I as a guardian? I feel so much anger right now towards my ancestor for cursing our family. And so, Kamui walked off into the dark street feeling nothing, but the cold and harsh wind that followed him by.

Faith watched Kamui leave and felt so much sorrow in her heart. But was it for him? She’d always been one to never understand even her own feelings. She had been so caught up in feeling other people’s feelings that she had forgotten to understand her own. It was the curse of being psychic – feeling others around you and forgetting who you are. She walked down the stairs after locking the door tight towards the cellar, where Patricia was slapping Lilac’s face as if she was trying to wake her up.

“That’s nice,” she gestured towards her godmother, as she took a seat on a wooden chair against the wall, “do you want me to order any pizza for our guest or are you going to carry on doing that?”

“Your support would be nice,” sighed Patricia, as she noticed Lilac wasn’t waking up. “She’s out completely. I thought I’d never see my good old friend again. Strange, considering how the last time I saw her, we were both fighting for our lives. But even so, I was the one that aged, not her.”

“I’ve just had the most awful history lesson from Kamui and I’m not in the mood for anymore stories,” growled Faith. “But I want to know how the hell you know Lilac and what the **** she wants with me.” She didn’t even stop glaring coldly when Patricia rose to her feet as if she was going to tell her off. “Forget the cussing for now, Patricia, I want to know why on earth you know her and what the whole deal’s about. How the HELL did she become a demon?”

“If you really want to know, then I’ll tell you,” shrugged Patricia, who knew that there was no escape from this. “It was seventeen years ago …”

Hexane Research Centre, Canada

“Good morning, Doctor Musso,” said an assistant, as he watched a young Patricia Musso walk through the automatic doors in the corridors of the Hexane Research Centre in Canada. Patricia smiled and returned the greeting with a simple ‘hi’. The two of them walked down the corridor to their destination, which was the testing area. “It seems as though our testing is going pretty well. We already have one strong young woman that can contain Doctor Wilkinson’s experimentation.”

“Really?” said Patricia with a lot of interest and enthusiasm in the tone of her voice. She nodded towards him. “A strong young woman? Then I only have to assume that it’s Lilac Jacqueline Tulsa. Why, she’s the only woman waving the flag for our tests.”

“Just like you, Doctor Musso!” he smiled brightly, as they used their cards to pass through a limited area. “I’m sure that the President would be proud to have someone as great and bright as you from England to represent the United States of America!”

“You … overemphasise, Jonathan,” she chuckled.

“Doctor Wilkinson doesn’t seem to think so,” said the assistant, whose name was Jonathan Gregory. Now Patricia’s whole attention was on him. “Doctor Wilkinson knows how to repay those who works with him. When the experiment’s a success –”

“What? WHEN it’s a success?”

“But the Doctor’s experiments are always a success! You must surely know!”

Patricia Musso did not know what to think at this point. She scratched her head, as they came nearer towards the testing area. They walked through to the office, where a handsome and tall Doctor Daniel Wilkinson was waiting for them. He was not only tall and handsome, but had brilliant brown eyes and short blonde hair that was neatly brushed.

“Ah, Patricia,” smiled Daniel. “So wonderful of you to join me.” He turned to Jonathan. “If it’s not too much trouble, Jonathan, could you leave us for an hour? Ah, thank you.” He watched Jonathan leave quickly. “Patricia, there’s something I need to tell you and I think you may find it either spectacular or disturbing.”

So what was it? What was the infamous mind of Daniel Wilkinson about to present to the aspiring and rising Patricia Musso?

“The experiment will work without a doubt,” he continued to say, before Patricia had a chance to even reply to his last words. “The experiment is, I’m afraid, disturbing to you. All those protests you had against human rights … my, our test won’t even be human by the time I’m done with her.” Patricia looked suspiciously at him. “That’s right, Patricia. The experiment I’m doing is invoking a demon spirit into Tulsa.”

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” yelled Patricia. “WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU STUCK BY ME ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS IN SCIENCE? YOU SAID THAT THEY HAD TO AGREE TO WHATEVER WE HAVE TO TEST THEM WITH! YOU LIED TO ME AND LILAC!”

“I can do whatever the hell I want,” glared Daniel coldly. “Prepare yourself, Patricia, for the experiment of the century! Or else you could just leave. I can always have the security remove you from the facility. It’s one way or the other. I suggest you pick wisely.”

When Patricia tried to run out the room, a security guard appeared and grabbed her. He placed her down on a chair and tied her up.

“But I choose that you watch.” Daniel crossed his arms. “You’re about to see a monster become reborn, Patricia. Don’t look so angry with me, you knew it would come one day. The day when I make a fascinating discovery and put it to the test! If this experiment doesn’t work, I always have my eye on another guinea pig to experiment on.”

Inside the testing area, which was outside the enclosed office, Lilac Tulsa walked out from the automatic door that allowed her access into the area. She didn’t look any younger or older than she was in the present. She was wearing normal clothes and looked confused.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “I didn’t remember THIS being part of the schedule.”

“Lilac …” murmured Patricia, wanting to press her hand against the window, but couldn’t since she was tied to the chair. “How could I let this happen? No, let me go through the pain instead! She shouldn’t have to suffer!” She looked angrily at Daniel. “You said you would pick me if she’s not strong enough! Lilac hasn’t done anything wrong! She’s too weak to go through with this!”

“I want you to see her suffer,” growled Daniel, as he held a small glass tube of purple energy. “This is the demon spirit only known as Angelus. If this is a success, then the world will know to worship me. Angelus will be at my command and then the world will perish at my hands.”

“Your plan won’t work!” she shouted. “Lilac will never give into Angelus! Angelus will never listen to you!”

“We’ll see about that!” he laughed, as he placed the glass tube into a small tube that attached itself to a laser gun pointed at Lilac. He then spoke through the speakers. “Lilac, Lilac, Lilac. You’re my little guinea pig experiment – and now you’re going to finally see if you’ve been worth my time.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Lilac, but then saw Patricia tied up. “Why have you got Doctor Musso tied up? Answer me!”

But Lilac never got her answer. The laser gun pointed the energy at her and then made her toss and turn on the ground. Patricia didn’t want to watch, but she was forced to when a security guard pointed her head in that direction. She tried closing her eyes, but she received a slap each time she tried to. “Not Lilac … please, not Lilac …” she whispered, as she watched her friend go through the pain.

Despite Lilac’s pain, Daniel seemed pleased enough with the whole process. Revenge burnt brightly in Patricia’s mind. How could he turn so evil? How could be heartless like this? She screamed out Lilac’s name and her eyes widened when she saw Angelus emerge from within the shell that had created itself in Lilac’s body. Angelus took a quick glance around the room she was in and then screamed so piercingly that everyone was deafened. A white flashing light occurred and there were sounds of things being destroyed in the darkness …

Musso Residence

“… And that’s what happened,” said Patricia, who had refused to let any tears slide down her dry cheeks. “I woke up in the snow and found the research centre completely destroyed. If Lilac couldn’t have survived Angelus, then I would have been the one to suffer the consequences. It should have been me instead, but Wilkinson was pleased enough with Lilac being the host.”

“But why hasn’t she aged a bit?” asked Faith with curiosity expressed in the tone of her voice. “You said it was seventeen years since you was last there, right? You were both twenty-four at the time like you said. You’ve aged, she hasn’t … what’s going on?”

“The only explanation is that Angelus must have stopped Lilac from aging altogether somehow,” replied her godmother. “It would have been almost like her being immortal, however, not entirely. Lilac could have still been hurt and bled like normal people; she could’ve even been killed. Perhaps someone with the amount of power far much more than your own could kill her.”

So was this why Patricia could never look at Faith with happiness expressed upon her face for a long time? Was it the burden of failing to save a friend from such a terrible fate that caused a great sadness in her heart? Faith could easily compare Patricia’s pain to Kamui’s female ancestor who had once carried the child of an immortal man of darkness. However, Patricia hadn’t killed herself. What was Faith to do now that she knew the truth of her godmother’s past? Continuing like normal was out of the question.

“I’m awake,” muttered Lilac, as she stirred a little. She opened her eyes to find Faith in front of her in a fighting position. “Wouldn’t you be able to tell the difference between Angelus and I? I’m human, Angelus is demon … capeesh?”

“Since Angelus nearly destroyed my room and almost killed my godmother, would you think I’m taking any risks?” asked Faith, raising an eyebrow and refusing to take her gaze off the half demon. When Lilac shook her head, Faith backed off a little. “I know what happened. Patricia told me everything, but I don’t understand why you wanted to test me.”

Lilac sat up and moaned due to the injuries she had received.

“I … came to test you because … ouch, my spine,” she groaned. “It’s because I’ve seen a lot of bad things happening in the future. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not psychic here or anything, but Angelus can sense great powers on any level anywhere within a country.”

Probably means Kamui, thought Faith sadly. He was far more powerful than me. But I managed to throw him away from me. Did he let me use my power against him? Maybe there IS some regret inside of him somewhere. Still doesn’t fit why he would let me use my telekinetic powers against him. She scratched her head and glanced at Patricia. “You’re a doctor, right? You try explaining what she means.”

“WAS,” emphasised Patricia. “The moment I saw what was going on in Canada was the moment I quit being a doctor of science. I hated myself for letting that experiment happen.”

“The past is done with,” growled Lilac, rising to her feet and looking blankly at the wall. “We can’t change it, there’s no way going about it. Forget about being Angelus’s next host, Patricia, why didn’t you tell me that you had a psychic goddaughter?”

“Forgot to mention that,” sighed Patricia, rubbing the back of her neck. “I told you about my best friend, right? Catherine Crest was Faith’s mother back in the good old country of England. After the research centre went kaboom, I went back to England to get away from the paparazzi as soon as possible. I planned to see Catherine and tell her what happened. But … she was already dead. An orphanage was taking care of Faith and I took her as my own child. I proved I was her godmother and they handed her over. Like her mother, she’s psychic. They’re very rare and only appear every couple of centuries according to history …”

“This is a long story,” sighed Faith. “Lilac, can you hold Angelus off for now?”

“I say yes,” nodded Lilac. “You and your friend managed to hold her off for a few days. It’ll take at least a few days for her to recover from the damage she sustained and with me in control, she’ll need to be at full strength to come back rampaging.”

“I’m going to make some cookies,” said Patricia dreamily.

“What?” stared Faith. “You never make cookies.”

“Lilac has nowhere to go,” said Patricia. “She’ll stay with us for now until we know what’s threatening you.” She noticed Faith’s worried look. “I know you’re upset about what Kamui did, but … just tell me everything in the morning. My head is spinning around and I can’t really focus. Baking cookies is only going to help me now.”

“So Patricia is your godmother?” asked Lilac, as she and Faith watched her walk up the stairs back to the ground floor. “She said that she always wanted to be a mother to a child. I guess that she finally got her wish.” She saw Faith’s suspicious look. “I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I think that you should give Patricia a break. It’s hard enough seeing me again. You have no idea what went on in the research centre seventeen years ago. Coming back to see her … it’s like a second chance …”

As Faith watched Lilac go up the stairs, many thoughts spun around her head. Maybe I should give her a chance, she thought. For now, this has to be a secret between us. She then thought of Kamui and an image cropped up in her mind of him asking what happened after he left. It’s no vision, but it’s something that could definitely happen. I’ll just have to figure it all out in the morning. It’s nearly eleven and I could definitely use the cookies that Patricia’s offering me. She looked around the cellar with a little regret in her eyes and then walked up the stairs to the ground floor.

A dark portal opened shortly after she went upstairs and Kamui stepped out of it followed by two figures dressed in black with their hoods up concealing their faces.

“Is that her?” asked one of the men.

“Yes, it’s her,” said Kamui, sighing. His eyes showed regret as well.

“Then we’ll be taking our prize!” exclaimed the second man.

“You can’t do that, you said you only needed her powers!” protested Kamui. “We had a deal here! You take her powers and then you free me of the curse that has been inflicted on my family for one thousand years. You both get what you want and we’ll be free to walk as normal people.”

“Forget that, I want my toy broken,” growled the second man.

“Now, Felonious, let’s not get too hasty,” sniggered the first man.

“You’re right, Magus,” sighed Felonious. “But I still want a taste of her power! It’s in my hands! It’s almost in my reach … but wait a moment … ah yes! Do you feel that, Magus?”

“I sure do,” hissed Magus. “Another powerful being in the house …”

 

[Faith Crest]

Well, I did want to see if anyone would leave any comments, but I'll post the next chapter up now. Oh, and James, I think you'll like the end of this chapter in particular because a certain someone appears ...

Chapter 6: More Secrets And Lies​

Musso Residence

Kamui started laughing when he heard Felonious and Magus debating on who the other being was in the house. The two inhuman beings glared coldly at Faith’s newly appointed guardian.

“What’s so funny?” snarled Magus.

“Just the fact that you’ve just walked into a trap,” smiled Kamui brightly, and then vanquished Magus with a dark energy ball. Felonious would have reacted, but stopped when he saw another dark energy ball appear in Kamui’s hand. “If I were you, I’d be cowering in fear right now. Which you are, right? Because you better hope so.”

“Fine,” growled Felonious. “I won’t make any move. I won’t use any dark magic or my powers to get out of here. Now what the hell do you want? I know you don’t want yours or the brat girl’s powers taken.”

Kamui nodded his head eagerly. “You’re quite right, but I could need a dark priest’s knowledge. I need you to tell me about the demon known as Angelus. The other being that you sense? Angelus inhabits a human’s body, a human named Lilac Tulsa. I need you to tell me everything you know about Angelus.”

“Angelus is here?” gasped Felonious, but knew that he could tell if Kamui was lying or not. “Very well, but you should have just told me the truth instead of wasting my time! And not forgetting to mention the sacrifice that had to be made in order to –”

“We’ll discuss that later,” said Kamui, who was glaring coldly at Felonious and made him cower in fear, “and there’s also another thing to ask … it’s about me.” When Felonious looked curiously at him, Kamui continued to speak. “Will I be like this forever? Or will I actually be aligned to the light if I ever seek redemption for my ancestor’s mistakes?”

Felonious stood there for a moment deep in thought and then looked back at him. “I do not have the answer. We dark priests might have a lot of knowledge, but I certainly don’t know the answer regarding your curse. But … the aura around you … it predicts that you will find the answers yourself, possibly through the girl.”

So Faith maybe able to help unravel the mystery behind the curse and even help me to become as normal as I can be, Kamui thought to himself. He smiled at the dark priest and nodded. “Thanks for your time.” But then a dark energy ball hit him and he was vanquished. “But I never really had the time for scum like you. I can’t have people like you hurting Faith.”

“Hello?” came a voice from upstairs, which Kamui recognised as belonging to Faith. “Is anyone down there? You better show yourself or else I’ll kick your ass!”

Kamui closed his eyes and then his whole body disappeared in darkness. A few seconds after he was gone, Faith had appeared raising her fists and looking eagerly around the room. She sighed and lowered her defences.

“I seriously don’t know why I bother,” she muttered under her breath.

“You weren’t dreaming,” added Lilac, who walked into the room and surprised Faith by just showing herself, “and you shouldn’t be too quick to lower your defences. I’d be as suspicious as ever. Someone was here and you know it, Faith.” She bent down to see dust on the ground and touched it. “Dark priests were here … I wouldn’t be surprised if your friend was here.”

“Kamui came back?” whispered Faith, sighing again. I told him to prove himself of being innocent – and then he storms back into my home bringing dark priests with him? Just when I thought he was strange … he got even stranger. “Forget about him for now. At least there are two dark priests less to deal with now.” She turned to face Lilac. “Why don’t we get some sleep at least? It’s been a really long day for me and I think I could need the sleep right now …”

Turner Residence

Dawn was perhaps the most normal girl that Faith had ever met. The two were at her house the next morning. And for someone so normal, she was so used to hearing the stories Faith had for her. Now she was talking about all the things that had happened last night. For one being so good to handle surprises, Dawn couldn’t bring herself to believe that Kamui was actually using the power of darkness.

“But … Kamui? He just can’t –” she began to say.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” interrupted Faith, who herself couldn’t still believe what had happened last night. “He protected me last night against Angelus. He saved me, but he could have hurt or even killed me at many occasions.” She looked worriedly at Dawn. “Dawn, why would he protect me? I’ve always known dark creatures to try kill me, not play Cole from Charmed.”

There was a knock on the door to Dawn’s room. Filden and Rene walked in awkwardly after seeing the distraught looks on the girls’ faces. As Filden hugged Dawn, Rene walked up to Faith and smiled weakly.

“Hey,” he said quietly, “how are you holding up?”

“Not good,” Faith shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t trust Kamui anymore. No offence, but I don’t even know if I can trust anyone anymore.” When Rene asked her what she meant, Faith sighed again. “Patricia told me something about her past last night. She had a friend called Lilac Tulsa. They were doing tests … and when she found out the truth about these tests …” She delved into the explanation now telling Dawn and Filden, too. “… And then Patricia ran away for three years away from everyone. She came back to England and then adopted me …” It was still hard for her to take in.

“Shall we just go out and do something?” asked Filden, despite Dawn’s cold glare.

“Yeah, it’d be good,” said Rene, as Faith then cried into his shoulder. He tried not to let his thoughts overwhelm his mind, especially since this was a position when she was most vulnerable. “Why don’t we go to that party tonight? Dave invited Filden and me, so why don’t you come? Or did he already invite you two as well?”

“He invited us,” smiled Dawn weakly.

“Yeah!” nodded Faith, as she sat up and wiped her tears away. “It’s the perfect place to let off some steam. Why don’t we just go tonight? Forget about Kamui, I’m fed up of this stupid crisis, anyway.”

New York Streets

After shopping for an hour in the grand city, Faith, Rene, Filden and Dawn were going back to Dawn’s place with plenty of bags to carry. Whilst Faith and Dawn were really happy to go shopping, Rene and Filden hadn’t. It wasn’t until Faith had threatened to dish their dirtiest secrets hidden in their minds that they had succumbed to what she wanted and decided to go with them.

“Why did we go shopping with them again?” Rene whispered to Filden. Whispering was something great for the pair of them, especially since Faith couldn’t always hear what they were talking about, even if she could read minds. “This has been the most boring and wasteful day I’ve ever fricking had!”

“Same here, mate,” sighed Filden, as he continued to struggle to hold Dawn’s bags. He laughed when he saw Rene struggling with Faith’s bags. “She’s got you wrapped around her little finger, you know? It’s really funny to see.” When Faith and Dawn were out of earshot, he continued to speak to him. “So did you ask her already?”

“Yeah, last night,” nodded Rene. “I’m really excited about it.”

“Good for you, least you got a date,” he muttered under his breath.

“Hey! What about you and Dawn? I thought that you were gonna ask her!”

“Haven’t found the right time yet, Rene. It’s never a good time with Dawn … have you even noticed how little time we have alone together nowadays? And before you ask, I’d be crapping myself if I had to ask her at her doorstep.”

“That’s something I got to be proud of,” smiled Rene brightly. “It’s the fact I asked her at the doorstep and you’d be scared to do it with Dawn.”

“Are you two coming or what?” asked Dawn, as she and Faith stopped walking when they noticed the two guys were walking slower than them. “We only have two hours to get ready for the party! I SO cannot WAIT!”

“You go to a party every week,” assumed Faith, who was trying to shift the times when she found Dawn at a party having the time of her life. She hadn’t drunk alcohol or anything, but the time would be nearing soon. But maybe that’s what I need, right? Anyone could say that. Then again, they just don’t know that I’m the freaky psychic girl. She watched Dawn lecture Rene and Filden about how long it took for a girl to get ready for a party. Was I right to tell them about me? I’m having second thoughts about it now …

“Faith? You still with us?” said Rene, snapping his fingers.

“Huh? What? Oh yeah, just daydreaming,” said Faith, laughing it off. “You know, just thinking about the party! Not been able to get out much lately, so I’m really glad that we’re going.”

As the four carried on walking down to Faith and Dawn’s neighbourhood, a tall guy with brown hair, blue eyes and wearing his work uniform came strolling by. Faith smiled at him and they all stopped. This was James Honda, twenty years old, one of Faith’s closest friends and the first to welcome her into the neighbourhood a year ago.

“Hi, guys,” said James. “What’s up? You look like you’ve been shopping again.”

“It was Dawn’s idea,” groaned Rene. “I’m fed up of carrying these bags!”

“Could you do us a favour and help us, James?” asked Filden. “My arms are numb!”

James shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, giving them a warm smile. “No can do, guys. I gotta go to work and it might be a chance for promotion, so I’m definitely not missing it.”

“Go for it, James!” smiled Faith, encouraging him. “I know you can do it. I know you’ll get that voiceover someday – and today’s that day. Just believe in yourself and you can do it.”

“Thanks, Faith,” winked James, and then started walking past them. “I’ll let you all know how it goes. See you guys later!”

“Bye!” they all said.

Now that Faith thought about James, she still hadn’t told him her secret. What if it was best if her friends forgot about who she really was? She was considering that option now, but what happened when even her friends would be in danger? Would she even be able to explain her actions?

Musso Residence

Instead of going straight to Dawn’s house, Faith had come home. She had refused to let Rene and Filden inside because they had wanted to see Lilac, the half demon she had to stop. As she closed the door behind her, she could sense a feeling of anxiety overwhelming the atmosphere. When she walked into the living area, she saw Patricia sat there in silence. Gazing out at the window was Lilac who still had her scars and bruises covering her body.

“What did I miss?” asked Faith, as she crossed her arms and walked to Patricia.

“Lilac senses danger,” explained Patricia. “She sees that there’s going to be an explosion in the next few hours and that there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

“What?” she whispered.

She hadn’t heard anything like this before. She hadn’t even dealt with a situation as critical as this. All Faith had done was save people from falling buildings, get rid of dark creatures and generally do what she thought that she was right. But … an explosion? How could she stop it? It wasn’t really something that she could do. This was a situation far beyond her power and control.

“This cannot be happening,” said Faith, who scratched her head as if she was trying to see if this was a dream or not. And before she knew it, she burst out shouting and yelling. “I can’t stop an explosion! Who do you think I am – Superwoman? I’m not meant to do this!”

“You are,” said Lilac, who spoke to her for the first time since last night when she had told her that Kamui had returned to the house. “Something tells me that you’re the only person meant to stop this.”

Faith could only moan to Patricia. “This isn’t fair! I have a party to go to tonight and Dave invited me! Patricia! You know that I can’t do this! I’ve faced life and death situations before, but I’ve never dealt with … EXPLOSIONS!”

“You have to go stop this now,” said Patricia, who rose to her and defended Lilac. When Faith didn’t move, she stepped forward to her. “Well? Go now! It could be happening anytime now!”

Before Faith left, she turned to Patricia and sighed. “I hope that you’ll make some cookies when I get back.” She ran out of the house and then hurried towards the main part of the city.

New York Streets

As Faith arrived in the main part of the city, she looked confused. Nothing was going on. There wasn’t even anything to suggest that an explosion was going to happen. She sighed and wanted to go back home for the party, but decided to stay for a while. It would be hard, however, because there were cops walking past her all the time giving her suspicious looks. And before long, everyone was giving her suspicious looks.

I’m about to save your lives here, she thought. You should be at least grateful.

Then she realised that there was a video game store across the road. She decided it’d pass the time and decided to have a look around. Faith crossed the road carefully and quickly. However, she never got inside. Before she knew it, the explosion occurred and for some odd reason, Faith never got the warning sign from her powers. Many people were blasted into the air, including herself. When she landed on the floor with a thud and the thousands of pieces of glass hitting her, Faith could only feel pain.

She rose to her feet feeling injured. There were still people in the air, so she used her powers to make sure that they landed carefully. Faith didn’t have time to think that she was using her powers in public. There was the matter that the explosion had happened – and she had come to the right place after all. Faith watched people looking in shock and awe at the video games store, which was now up in flames. What came next was something that they’d never forget.

A creature emerged from the store. It was something that Faith wished she had never seen just like the others surrounding her and in the neighbouring areas. It had the head of a cobra, an electrical eel arm, a wolf arm with claws and the legs of a cheetah. She stood up properly and wiped off the glass that was on her clothes. Despite being bloodied and weak, Faith limped forward towards the beast.

“Ah,” it spoke and hissed its tongue at her, “you are not like mosssssst people, are you?”

Faith felt like saying “what are you?” and decided against it when she suspected it of causing the explosion. She knew it was the only explanation. “Who are you?” she shouted. “What do you want?”

“I?” it hissed again and snarled at her. “I am Mutator! And you will all die!”

 

[ansemjafar]

That is awesome that you have James and Mutator in the story. Also Mutator has the chest of a bull, a scorpion tail on his back and bee's wings on his back. ^_^ I look forward to next chapter.

 

[King Naruto]

Good fic. I like it but one question. Where's Fayt?

 

[Faith Crest]

Good fic. I like it but one question. Where's Fayt?

He'll make his appearance in Chapter 10, I currently have nine chapters already. But I'll post the next chapter since I can't really wait much longer. So here's Chapter 7! What happens next? Faith gets a good old thrashing from Mutator, of course ...

Chapter 7: Pushed To The Limit​

New York Streets

There was so much pain coursing through her body and so much tormenting thoughts worrying her too much. Despite the fact that she had used her powers publicly for the first time ever, Faith couldn’t care less. This creature, which called itself Mutator, now threatened the lives of people in the city and far beyond. Never before had she had to set eyes something more terrifying and disgusting as Mutator. As if someone was expecting her to make a move, Faith ran quickly at Mutator ready to attack.

However, he was far quicker by a mile. He used his cheetah legs to sprint at Faith and grabbed her by the throat with his wolf hand. She was hoisted into the air and shocked many people. The cops had arrived, but what could they do? There was a savage beast on the loose and looked like it was about to kill someone – that someone being Faith.

“I think that you will make a brilliant killing!” hissed Mutator, tightening his grip on her, which only caused her to choke even more. “But then again … when isss it that I meet someone who isss not like me?” He threw her to the ground and she was finally able to breathe. “Ah, we have some company, my little friend. I will be back to you in a moment or two …”

The cops swiftly got out of their cars and raised their guns aiming directly at Mutator.

“Stop right there or else we’ll shoot!” they shouted. “You’re under arrest for property damage and threatening the members of the public!”

With the cops successfully distracting Mutator, Faith took her chance to get out there and alive. She slowly rose to her feet and cried out in pain – her left arm was broken, she could tell by the sickening crunching noise her arm made when she was standing up. People were backing away from her when she moved through the crowd. Careful not to freak them out anymore, Faith took to the alleyways to escape Mutator.

And when she did reach an alleyway, she bumped into none other than –

“Rene!” she cried, and hugged him with her one arm that wasn’t broken. “Am I so bloody glad to see you.”

“Faith, you’re in a really bad state!” stared Rene, noticing the blood that was staining her clothes. “I saw it all on the news, so I came down here to get you out of this mess. Is it really true that there’s a monster here with different animal parts? Because I wouldn’t like to cross him any day.”

“Yes, it’s all true,” nodded Faith, who looked like she was on the verge of tears. “He’s much stronger than anyone I’ve ever faced. And now that the world may know my secret, what am I supposed to do?” She stopped for a moment to breathe and then spoke again. “You, Filden and Dawn should stay away for the time being. It’s not safe being around me at the moment!”

“I know it’s not safe, but since when has it ever been safe?” he joked around.

Faith didn’t look amused whatsoever.

“All right then,” said Rene. “We’ll just take to the sewers then. Remember what we agreed when we found out about your powers, Faith? It’s the fact that we’d always stick together no matter what. And besides … there’s also something that I want to address.” Faith raised an eyebrow when he went formal; it wasn’t like him to say big fancy words in front of her. He closed his eyes and before she knew it, he was gone.

“Rene? Did you just go invisible?” she asked in a mixed tone of surprise and gladness. “Looks like I’m not the only freaky person in this world then.”

“You got that right,” said Rene, who turned visible again. “I only just found out, it was the night that I asked you to the dance. I’ve learned to control it a little now, but I just needed to tell someone who was, well, freaky.” He bent down to open a way to the sewers and looked directly into Faith’s eyes. “If you’re with me, then you’ll be fine. I used to hide in the sewers all the time when I was a kid. Don’t look at me like that; I used to hide when the bullies came looking for me. So are you coming then?”

“I guess I got no choice, have I?” shrugged Faith.

And with Rene’s help, she was on her way down to the sewers.

Gurito Residence

For someone so cheeky and delightful, Filden’s place was neat and normal like Dawn’s home. The pair of them was stood in the kitchen watching what had occurred on the news. It hadn’t come to a crisis like this before – and Dawn was the one who worried about Faith the most. Filden was distracted by how the public would take to Faith having powers far beyond their knowledge.

“This is really bad,” said Filden, as his crossed his arms, closed his eyes and sighed.

“The last thing that was almost as bad as this was the time when the dark priests took over the churches,” Dawn reminded him. “But it didn’t make the five o’clock news! I hope Faith’s all right … judging by what Mutator did to her, then she’s in a really bad state.” She went to drink some of her orange juice; she did this when she felt worried or anxious.

“I need to ask you something as well,” he said nervously. Great, I’m shitting myself. Rene told me to do it and now’s the only chance. I just got to take it! C’mon, Filden, this is the most important moment in your life. He braced himself. “Dawn, will you –”

“What can be more important than Faith nearly getting killed again?” she snapped.

At that point, a dark portal opened – and Kamui stepped out of it. Filden raised his fists and stepped in front of Dawn as if he was going to protect her. But Kamui sighed and shook his head, as he crossed his arms.

“You don’t seem shocked to see that,” he finally said.

“Look, Kamui, we know that –” began Dawn.

Kamui, however, cut her off. “You know that Faith told you about me or whatever she wants to believe. I’m not here to argue about that, I want to know what’s been going on back here because I know Faith’s in a really bad state and if someone doesn’t answer any of my questions now, then she could die today.” For once, he was being serious.

“You like to play serious, huh?” said Filden, as he lowered his defences. “All right, some creature attacked the city and Faith was the one to get hurt the worst. She used her powers in public and now the whole world knows her secret. Happy?”

“Who’s the creature?” asked Kamui calmly, as he put on his black gloves.

“Calls itself Mutator,” replied Dawn. “Why is this relevant? Aren’t you supposed to be redeeming yourself or something like that? You could’ve finished Faith off yourself, so why bother asking these things?”

“Faith didn’t tell you that I was meant to protect her, right?” smiled Kamui. He turned to face the pair of them. “I told her that I was meant to be her guardian, to protect and serve for her. But I guess that she left that part out. Now that’s why I need to know where exactly she is and stop Mutator killing her in the process.” He unleashed his blade from its holster, which was on his back. “This could kill Mutator.”

“Protect, serve … and kill? I don’t remember kill being part of the whole deal,” said Dawn, who looked closer and closer to letting out her rage. “Kamui, you got your info. Just go and do what you were meant to do – that is, if you were telling the truth.”

Kamui looked a little sad. “And here I was thinking that you’d be the one that wouldn’t change her opinion of me. I guess I was wrong, Dawn, but believe me now. I am trying to get rid of this curse inflicting me. I don’t want powers of darkness, believe me! But I have to do something first to get rid of them. After that, I don’t know what will happen to me.” He walked through the dark portal and it closed behind him.

“Do you think he could really be normal?” asked Dawn.

“The way he’s going, he’s not going to change by personality,” joked Filden. “That’s a definite for sure.”

New York Sewers

Once Faith was off the ladder that they were climbing down, she and Rene had finally arrived at the sewers. They started walking in a random direction. They would go anywhere to get as far away from Mutator as possible. But the fact that Faith no longer felt alone in having powers struck her and it lifted the world off her shoulders.

“Do you think Mutator could track us?” asked Faith curiously, as they came to a crossroads. “Oh, and I’d take any direction again.” So they took to the right road.

“Who knows? As far as we know, he can sprint with the cheetah legs, blow things up with the electrical eel arm and even grab people by the throat with the wolf hand,” said Rene, shrugging his shoulders. “The guy could be capable of anything, so we should keep moving until we feel safe.”

“And how am I supposed to know when we feel safe?” asked Faith, looking annoyed of the stupid walking that they were doing already. “You didn’t have to sign up on to this, Rene. It’s me that Mutator wants and nothing more.”

“Look, I’m here to protect one of my friends, all right?” For once, Rene sounded annoyed himself. “If you don’t want the protection, go back up to the surface. Let Mutator find you and kill you. Then we can be done with the goddamn problem, ok? But I’m not gonna stop protecting you from that thing, that’s who I am.”

Faith looked impressed with the argument that Rene had fought for himself. “Wow, I never expected you to be like that, you know? I always thought of you as going along with everyone else, but now I know I’m wrong. You’ve really changed in the past few weeks, Rene, and I can honestly say that it’s a good change.”

Rene didn’t reply, but he did smile sheepishly. They came to a halt, however, when they heard bangs from above. Faith wiped the blood that was trickling down from her forehead and stayed still like Rene had done so. Was something going on up on the surface? Silence reigned for the next few moments – and the worst was feared amongst the pair of them.

BANG.

The ceiling ahead of them had been bashed right through. Rene, knowing something wasn’t right, grabbed Faith’s hand and the pair of them turned invisible. Asking how he had made her invisible, Rene simply answered that it was him holding her hand and that he could make her visible when he wanted after making physical contact with her.

Mutator had smashed his way through to the sewers and was sniffing around. Faith and Rene could hear people running in different directions on the surface, probably due to the fact that Mutator had evaded capture. They both secretly hoped that there had been no injuries or even deaths just because he was after Faith the whole time.

“I know you’re here, Crest,” he hissed. “I CAN SMELL YOU!”

“Don’t let on to him that we’re here,” whispered Rene. “He’ll go away soon.”

“If you don’t show yourself, then I’ll wreck this place apart!” yelled Mutator.

“I don’t think he’s leaving anytime soon,” muttered Faith to him.

And then Mutator started wrecking the sewer walls. He flew into the air using his wings and stomped on the ground.

“And now he can fly,” gulped Rene. “Could this get any worse?”

Then he took aim and blasted the walls with his electrical eel arm. This time, Faith and Rene had to duck to get out of the way. The rubble fell on to the ground and still there was no visibility to reveal the pair of them. Mutator, however, wasn’t giving up and looked determined to find them both.

“You were saying?” whispered Faith, who looked more annoyed than ever. “Look, we should just leave already quietly and slowly …”

“I hear you, Crest,” snarled Mutator. “And your friend should leave now before I crush his bonessss!”

“I definitely agree,” muttered Rene, “but I’m staying here.”

Suddenly, he successfully launched a punch at the pair. They went flying into the wall and were now visible to Mutator. Whilst Rene was knocked out, Faith was just able to cling on to consciousness. She rose to her feet again in defiance of Mutator, who was now making his advance towards her.

Faith looked angry this time. Rene was knocked out and had risked everything to protect her. Now Mutator wanted to get rid of her. It was a day that she knew that she’d never forget. But now she had to end it all. There was no more running and she had partly recovered from the explosion outside the video games store.

“Let’s end thissss now!” hissed Mutator.

“Oh yes, let’s end it!” shouted Faith angrily.

She found herself being overwhelmed by anger, and sent a powerful force field towards a running Mutator, who couldn’t even block it. He went flying back and straight through a wall. The impact of the anger and frustration of it all happening even caused everyone to even forget that they had seen Faith using her powers in public.

Moments later, Lilac had arrived. She ran towards Faith and made sure that she was all right. Patricia was also with her and slapped Rene back into consciousness. Even when Lilac was asking her questions about what happened, Faith wouldn’t reply. She wanted to see whether Mutator was alive or not. She stormed forward to see where he had landed. But unexpectedly, he was gone. All that was left was a huge pool of blood.

“No one could have survived that impact,” said Lilac, who had followed her. “But we can take a swab of it and see whose blood it belongs to. If I’m correct, then that monster almost looks similar to a demon. I think someone’s been experimenting with people again and it looks recent.”

As Faith watched her go help Patricia with Rene, she wondered about the pool of blood. Whose blood was it really? Was there a person trapped in the same body as Mutator like Lilac was with Angelus? Perhaps there was more that she could learn here. Leaving the pool of blood for now, Faith walked back through the smashed wall again and then heard the sound of sirens. They’d have to get out of here soon or risk getting arrested.

Kamui appeared behind her suddenly.

“You know, I would be more interested in how you survived,” he said.

Faith turned to face him with anger still etched upon her face. “What do you want?”

“I came to finish Mutator off for you, but then I found out the most interesting thing of all,” he said with his playful voice. “Do you really want to know what it is? Because let’s face it, the truth’s hurt you too many times before lately. Did I mention to forget that I’m supposed to be YOUR guardian? Manipulating and rewriting the truth can’t help, Faith. It’s what happened with Mutator.”

“First of all, Mutator isn’t a problem anymore,” said Faith, who knew that she was going to win her side of the argument. “Secondly, why the hell do I want to make Mutator my own problem? And shut up about the truth, we all know that you’re my enemy. You could’ve killed me plenty of times before if you didn’t think about it!”

“I don’t like to break it to you, but Mutator will always be closer to home than you think.” When Faith looked confused, Kamui scratched his head and sighed. “He has another scent and I recognise it from somewhere … somewhere in your neighbourhood. I’d be really careful, Faith. I don’t want to see any dead bodies anytime soon. Keep it up and stay alive!” And with that, he disappeared again within an instant.

“Kamui was here again?” groaned Lilac when she went to see Faith. “He really does need a good kick up the butt and telling that he needs to prove himself worthy of even speaking to you. So what did he have to say this time?”

“I’ll talk about it later.” Faith left Lilac and went to see how Rene was doing.

Musso Residence

So many times had Faith gone to save peoples’ lives and yet there were so many lies behind it all. Had Kamui really meant by what he said? Was Mutator really in her neighbourhood with his other scent? Even though she didn’t entirely trust Kamui at the moment, she’d just have to go with her instincts right now. Faith lay on her bed thinking about the past week. From a stupid fight in school she had to break up to almost getting killed again, it had been a really eventful week. But Kamui’s confession came as the most disturbing thing of all.

She sat up and strangely found herself thinking about him. He had once said that he was going to prove himself of being good. Was this his way of doing that? Maybe Faith thought that she was being harsh on him. Maybe she would have to trust Kamui for now until she knew the extent of his powers – or rather curse. But why did she feel the awful sensation to call out for him?

“Kamui,” she whispered, regretting that she was about to do this. “I need to see you.”

And then a moment later, a dark portal opened. Out came Kamui still wearing his same black clothes. He crossed his arms and looked curiously at her, whilst there was a tone of seriousness on his face at the same time.

“I thought that it’d come to this,” he said, and nodded his head. “I’ve wanted to see you alone as well. There’s something I need to discuss with you and it’s about me. By all means, you go first and tell me why you want to see me.”

Faith embraced herself. “I need to really know something,” she said, her face looking concerned now more than ever. “I’ve been having these strange dreams lately and I can’t shake them off. It’s just the fact that, well, these people keep appearing. They’re the same people and they keep telling me that I am the … one. What do they mean?”

“Chosen one,” smiled Kamui innocently. “These people are angels. They watch over you when you least expect it. The world’s going to be in danger soon, Faith, and it’s going to need your help. Today, you escaped death … again. You keep cheating death, but for how long? How long do you expect to live? At the current time, there’s not much chance of you living until you’re eighteen.” She looked cross. “Well, don’t take it the wrong way obviously. You need to stay alive, that’s all. I can’t really say how the world’s going to be in danger, but all I know that it WILL be in danger. Your dreams might show you more soon.”

“Next thing is something you need to know, right?” asked Faith. “So go ahead and shoot. What’s your problem?”

“I know how to get rid of my curse once and for all,” said Kamui, who looked emotional to even say that. “But it requires you, Faith. You need to show me the error of my ways in my life and then I can finally be free of the darkness. As long as the darkness remains inside of me, I can never make a difference. I realise that now. I need another power – something much more than darkness. I need the light, but I need you to show it to me, Faith. Do you think that you could … enter my mind?”

Faith took a while to think about it. Enter his mind? Is he for real? How many times have I entered peoples’ minds and they hated it so much? But maybe this is the only way if he’s thought it thoroughly. She shrugged her shoulders. “You may have to give me a few days,” she said, smiling at him for the first time in a long time since she had found out the truth about him. “I need to recover and all. My mind is –”

“Drained, I understand,” nodded Kamui. “Call out for me in a few days when you feel better and then you can tell me your answer. For now, I’ll see you later. Don’t expect me to be chasing after you all the time.” He then disappeared in the same dark portal leaving a bewildered Faith wondering about why entering his mind was the only solution to ending the Shiro Curse.

 

[ansemjafar]

That was an awesome chapter. I really enjoyed it. You forgot about his scorpion tail. Oh well. It is cool. I can't wait for the next chapter. I think that James needs some love. ^_^

 

[Faith Crest]

Yeah, I think so, too. Don't worry, he will only use his scorpion tail when he's really ticked off! Now here's the next chapter. Mutator will return after this one, this chapter is just the aftermath of the whole Mutator crisis.

Chapter 8: The Distraction​

Hallways, Haven Middle School

It was back to business on the following Monday. Faith walked to school alone this time because she didn’t want to be tormented by the fact that she wasn’t strong enough to go to school on her own. She was now looking through her locker for her History books, especially since she had a test in ten minutes – the one that she had bailed herself out of by sending Winston Churchill’s statue against King Henry VIII’s portrait. At least she’d get it out of the way this time.

“So what’s going on?” asked Dawn, who was smiling as per usual. She already had her revision books out and was going through the keynotes that would crop up in the test. “You looked like you hurt yourself again … you didn’t even tell me that you were doing anything last weekend!”

“Yeah, I get my ass blasted across the city,” said Faith, who was looking annoyed with the cuts on her face, “and don’t expect me to look good on the outside. Now we got that History test in ten minutes. I’ve not even had time because of Mutator –”

“Who’s Mutator?”

At that point, Faith could only moan to herself. She’d done it again. There were many times before that there would be an accident happening in her little missions to save people. The most repeated accident was wiping out her friends’ memories of such things ever happening. She supposed that the only person who would remember encountering Mutator was Rene, who was with her all the way.

“Did something happen this weekend?” asked Dawn. Then she lowered her voice. “It didn’t happen again, did it? I thought that you were getting better at it?”

“Must be me blasting Mutator that caused it,” sighed Faith, as she slammed her locker shut. “No one probably remembers, except me, Patricia, Lilac and Rene. This is the best thing that could ever happen …” She looked at Dawn, who looked worried. “I’ll fill you in with the blanks later, Dawn. I got a test to study for and a certain guy called Kamui to avoid.”

“Ohhh, Kamui!” said Dawn in her giggly voice, as they crossed the hallways and stopped at the stairs leading to the first floor. “C’mon, Faith. I was just thinking about the whole Kamui thing. Maybe he’s really trying to do some good in the world this time. He really thinks about you when you don’t realise it. Maybe there’s some good in him after all. Besides! Just at least try to act normal around him or else Mr Lax will have your head.”

“He’ll have my head and the rest of me in detention, all right,” groaned Faith, as they started walking up the stairs to their History lesson.

Meanwhile, Kamui had been watching everything going on. He took off his shades and then looked at Filden, who had been watching as well.

“So does that mean that she’ll try act normal like Dawn said?” asked Filden.

Kamui shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? Besides, I feel really bad for you and Dawn. Trust me, we had a little thing going on the other day regarding me and Dawn put up the greatest argument ever to insult me. Your face was priceless. It’s too bad that she stopped you asking her to go out to the dance …” And so he walked off to History as well.

“Dawn stopped me asking her to go to the dance?” muttered Filden under his breath, and then watched Kamui scurry off to class. “Hey, wait! Get back here with the full details!” And then he was off to the lesson, too.

History Classroom, Haven Middle School

“The test is finished!” announced Mr Lax.

As the papers were starting to get handed in, Faith looked worriedly at Dawn.

“What if I failed? My life would be over!” she said.

“Your life nearly ended last weekend apparently, didn’t it?” grinned Dawn.

“I’ve completely aced this test,” smiled Rene, as he turned to face Faith. “Even though we were in a tight situation with the deadliest monster we’ve ever seen, I managed to get some studying in.” Filden nodded his head and started raising his eyebrows. “I always thought of you as the dumb type, Filden.” When Filden looked away with disgust, Rene continued to talk to Faith. “I could’ve ended your life if I didn’t do what I did.”

“More like Mutator ending my life,” muttered Faith, as she watched Mr Lax cast her a shifty glare when he collected her paper. She remembered the encounter that they had last week. When he was out of earshot, she continued to speak to Rene. “So the spring dance is coming up soon, right?”

“Yeah,” nodded Rene, knowing what Faith was up to. He still hasn’t asked Dawn.

Faith raised an eyebrow at Filden – something Dawn missed. “Really now?”

“What did I do now?” groaned Filden, looking fed up. You had to mention the spring dance, didn’t you, Faith? I still haven’t asked Dawn, but I’m taking it easy. I’m trying really hard to ask, but there’s never a good time! He sighed and looked at Dawn, who was speaking to the girl sat next to her. Oh gosh, she is so beautiful. Faith sniggered and Filden glared coldly at her. Don’t tell me you heard that!

“Every thought, every word,” shrugged Faith. She then glanced behind her to see Kamui, who looked lost in thought himself as he looked out of the window. We haven’t spoken to each other since that night. I’m still recovering from everything, but I wonder how things will be when we get his curse sorted? Could we ever friends again?

“There she goes off again in deep thought,” remarked Filden.

The bell rang and it was the end of the day. Everyone felt relieved and left the school as soon as possible.

New York Streets

Tonight, it was over to Faith’s place. Rene, Filden and Dawn were having their usual sleepover at her house, even though it was a Monday. Patricia never had a problem with it since they hardly had any company at the house. Despite the rough past few days that Faith and Patricia had with Lilac’s arrival and other issues, the sleepover had still gone ahead. Nothing ever stopped them from spending time with each other.

But as they were talking about what they were going to do that night, Faith was the only one who didn’t speak. There was one missing person from the group – Kamui. It still felt so strange without his presence being made known. Faith had always sensed a great deal of mystery surrounding Kamui and now she knew why she could sense that aura around him.

“Can we meet Lilac Tulsa?” asked Dawn, who turned to Faith. “Patricia said that her demonic side wouldn’t dare come out for a few days, so there’d be no danger, right?”

“Yeah, sure,” replied Faith with little interest whatsoever, “whatever.”

“You sound a little down tonight,” assumed Filden. “What’s eating ya?”

“Oh, I’m just tired,” said Faith, showing the cuts and bruises on her arms. “Did I forget to mention that I nearly got killed by a mutant-looking monster?” She spoke in quite a harsh tone and then put her jacket sleeve back down. “Look, let’s just get to my place, yeah?”

“Sorry,” apologised Filden. “I just thought –”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

Musso Residence

“Patricia! I’m home!” called Faith.

“Don’t you mean … WE’RE home?” emphasised Rene. “Hey, are you gonna speak to us or what?”

But then suddenly, an army general wearing his uniform appeared. Patricia appeared behind him with a worried look on her face. Faith stood in front of her friends as if sensing something was wrong.

“Faith Crest?” asked the general.

“Who’s asking?” questioned Faith, looking suspicious.

“General Hagen,” he said, outstretching his hand wanting her to shake it.

However, she didn’t shake it at all. To be honest, she had little respect for the army at the moment. Many times she had tight situations and the army had arrived too late. They hadn’t even come to the Mutator crisis in the city. They were so unreliable that she had a burning hatred towards them.

“I don’t shake hands with anyone,” glared Faith coldly. “I want to know why you’re here and what the hell you want.” Even Rene, Filden and Dawn were secretly shuddering in fear at her harsh attitude towards this one general.

“We have reason to believe that you are different than others,” said Hagen, as he put his hat back on. “We have some footage of you encountering the beast that almost destroyed New York City last weekend. I’m sorry, but we have to go through procedures.” Faith looked ready for whatever he had next. “We’re arresting you for property damage and –”

But even as the soldiers that had appeared to come arrest her, Faith was still ready. She punched one of them in the gut and sent the other flying into the wall. Patricia looked at her annoyed. “Not my wall, damn it!” she shouted. How many times have I told you not to cause trouble?

“I don’t cause trouble,” said Faith, looking sympathetically at Patricia, “trouble just comes to me.” She looked towards Hagen next. “Just like this pathetic bastard here.”

“So it’s true,” grinned Hagen. “You were the beast’s target.”

Faith growled, but then rolled up her jacket sleeve to reveal her deep cuts and bruises again. “And he just pushed me around like a doll,” she added. “But where was the army? Oh yeah, you were too late! Messing around in your headquarters devising plans for the world when you need to protect this country!”

“You’re right, the army cannot make any excuses,” he continued to say. “You were really brave to take on the beast. But then you call it ‘he’. Does it have a name?”

“Mutator,” replied Faith. “It called itself Mutator.”

“And do you think that your friends want to hear about this?” asked Hagen, nodding towards Rene, Filden and Dawn. “Or do they know about your freaky secret?”

“Freaky?” spat Filden. “Faith ain’t freaky!”

“Yeah, Faith’s our friend!” spoke up Dawn.

“If you think she’s freaky, then so am I,” said Rene.

“WHAT?” said Patricia, Filden and Dawn at the same time.

“It’s true,” said Faith, sighing, and everyone turned to face her. “If it wasn’t for Rene last weekend, then I’d be as good as dead right now.” She glared coldly at Hagen. “If you consider us freaky, then so be it. So what? Then that’d make me a freaky psychic girl.”

“And me as a freaky invisible guy,” laughed Rene, but then stopped when no one joined in. “Ok then … I just wanted to lift the mood up a little.”

“We have several tapes of the footage taken when the city was almost destroyed,” said Hagen. “You could try find and destroy them all, but then we could reveal your secret.” When Faith looked like she was going to do something, he raised his hand. “And no matter what, remember one thing. Memories are forgotten, not destroyed.”

“What’s your proposal then?” asked Faith.

“What’s going on?” muttered Filden to Dawn.

“They’re probably going to want something from Faith in return for not playing the tapes,” whispered Dawn, replying to his question. “I hope that it won’t interrupt –”

“We need your help,” cut in Hagen, who looked into Faith’s eyes directly for the first time. “After your encounter with Mutator, we chased him throughout the country. Fortunately, no one saw anything as he was too fast. But he went out of our range six hours ago. The last place we located him going towards was Russia.”

“See? The army really IS useless!” shouted Faith.

“We’re not useless, it’s the fact that this is far beyond our power!”

“And you want me to bring Mutator back? What for? Experimentation? Interrogation? Is there something you’re not telling me? You really think that sending me out after Mutator is going to save the world? You really need a reality check because in case you’ve forgotten, Mutator threw me around like a toy.”

Faith looked away from him to turn away, but his words stopped her from walking out the door. “Please, Faith Crest,” pleaded Hagen. “You’re our last hope. And if it’s necessary, then you can bring your freaky friend along with you, too.”

“Yeah, you heard me right! I saved her life from that monster!” yelled Rene.

“I’ll do it tomorrow,” were Faith’s last words, and she went to sit in the living area.

“But we need to do it as soon as possible!” barked Hagen.

“This is our special sleepover night!” shouted Dawn, much to everyone’s surprise, especially since she hardly ever shouted or yelled at anyone. She pointed a finger at Hagen, who looked a little alarmed. “This is the one time that we stick together as friends and spend time together. You can’t take that away from us!” When Hagen didn’t say anything, she continued to speak. “But you can always take away the school time from Faith and Rene for this mission. Trust me, I wouldn’t want to get on Faith’s bad side right now.”

“Doctor Musso,” nodded Hagen.

“I’m no doctor and don’t want to be, so don’t call me that!” exclaimed Patricia.

She slammed the door behind him when he left with the two hurt soldiers and turned to Rene, Filden and Dawn.

“All right!” she smiled. “Who wants some Chinese?”

Two hours later, Faith was sat in the garden watching the night sky. With everyone else inside and watching a DVD she didn’t want to watch, she had decided to come out here and get some peace and quiet. She sighed and looked up at the sky. It had many stars lighting it up, but with a full moon.

“Mind if I join you?” asked Rene, who had suddenly appeared.

“Sure, take a seat,” said Faith, who patted her hand on the bench she was sat on.

Rene muttered a “thanks” and sat down next to her. “So how are you feeling?” he asked. “I know you would’ve preferred the peace and quiet out here rather than –”

“It’s ok,” she said, smiling for the first time in a while. “I could’ve used a friend.”

“How are you holding up? Still sore?”

“Still sore, yeah, but you know that I’ve learnt to deal with it.”

“You do know that I’m coming with you, right?”

“WHAT?”

“Didn’t you hear? I told Hagen that I was coming.”

“You told Hagen WHAT?” said Faith loudly. “But, Rene! You realise how dangerous this is going to be? Do you know how much danger that you’re throwing yourself into?”

“From last weekend, I know how dangerous it is,” nodded Rene, “and I’m willing to take that risk. Remember, you’re not alone anymore. I finally came out with what I was hiding.” There was silence for a few moments until he spoke again. “You were the reason why I came out about my secret.”

“Me?” stared Faith.

Rene nodded and smiled. “You’ve taught me so much for so long, even if you’ve only been here for over a year. Not just me, but Filden and Dawn have learnt so much from you as well. They’ve learnt to be strong and never give up on the people you care for. If you hadn’t have come while you did –”

“Don’t say anything else,” whispered Faith.

The pair leant in towards each other as if they were going to kiss, but then suddenly, something distracted them.

“Wow! A shooting star!” jumped Faith, as Rene stood up with her.

“That’s incredible!” smiled Rene.

For now, the shooting star had distracted them of what could have happened just a few moments ago. Something was clear between these two – they would go on to become great friends now that they both shared a dreaded secret.

 

[Faith Crest]

All right, now time to get back to action. Mutator returns with his true identity revealed, but something is also revealed about Faith as well. Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Darkness Revealed​

Musso Residence

When Faith awoke the next day, she soon came to realise that she and Rene had almost kissed. Then she remembered that it was the shooting star that had been the distraction. As she sat up in her bed and looked at her friends still fast asleep, she wondered to herself. Was Rene really into her? Was she really into him? Or perhaps was it just the stupid feelings of lust interfering with what she really wanted?

Then again, he had saved her three days ago. If he hadn’t been there, then she would have been as good as dead right now. Speaking of Mutator, Faith groaned when she remembered when today she and Rene would be heading off to Russia for a mission to find Mutator. Apparently, he was rampaging the snowy woods according to Hagen.

When she climbed out of her bed, she felt somewhat dizzy and her head hurt so much. What was going on? She thought that it was possible that it was just the stress that she suffered too much. But then she banged her head against the wall when she least expected it. Wrong, Faith could tell it was linked to her powers. How? She didn’t know, but she shook off the feeling of uncertainty and went into the bathroom to get ready for the long day ahead.

An hour later and Faith still saw that Rene, Filden and Dawn were fast asleep in the spare beds in her bedroom. She shrugged her shoulders and sighed. I always thought that they were heavy sleepers, she thought. When she came to walk down the stairs, it was a different story. Angelus was waiting for her at the bottom – Lilac had lost control. Faith braced herself for what was coming next … but nothing did come.

“I am going to offer you something you cannot refuse,” hissed the demon, as her claws looked ready to slash anything that got in her way. “And now I must say that you are a worthy opponent, Crest. That makes you a worthy host. I could sense something special about you from miles away.”

“What do you want, Angelus?” asked Faith curiously and angrily at the same time.

Angelus crossed her arms and glared coldly at the teenage psychic with her blood red eyes. “I hear about Mutator lately. He is the news of everyone’s attention. I will get rid of your little problem as long as I get something in return.” She extended her clawed hand towards Faith. “What do you say to that?”

“Gee, I don’t know,” said Faith sarcastically and grinning, “a demon offers to sort out Mutator and then she wants to get something in return not forgetting that she attacked me before to steal my body. Whoops, big mistake!” She clenched her fists. “The next time you want something, ask for it nicely and maybe you’ll get somewhere. Randomly attacking people isn’t going to walk in your favour now, is it?”

Angelus made a motion to attack her, but then stopped. She didn’t want to attack her potential host sometime in the future, so she backed off for now. “You are wise, Crest,” she hissed evilly, “and that is what I like most about you. Reconsider it! I will be in the Underworld awaiting your answer.” A portal opened behind her and she stepped into it, thus, it closing behind her leaving a bewildered and extremely angry Faith to pick up the pieces of what had happened.

“Demons, demons, demons,” muttered Faith. “Always wanting deals, then snatching bodies. It’s how their dirty little minds work.” She walked downstairs to find that Patricia was lying on the floor with a few bumps and bruises to her head. Calmly, she helped Patricia sit down on the sofa and sighed, as she watched her come around to consciousness. Great, she’s the one that’s suffering for all of this. She’s suffered enough in the past year. Why should I even be here anymore? And it seemed that Faith knew she was right for once and was seriously thinking about the damage she was causing just because of who she was. I’ve only caused Patricia so much pain. The least I could do is leave her. She sighed and walked away to leave the house not sure of where she was going.

New York Rooftops

Faith could feel the fresh air filling the air up when she was finally on a rooftop in the main part of the city. Being away from the suburbs made her free a little bit. She had illegally made her way up to the rooftop and now she was sat on the edge of the building not sure what she was going to do. If she didn’t go to Hagen, then he might as well have exposed her secret. But would he really be willing to do that?

“Not in a million years,” she whispered quietly, and started playing with a random stone that she had found. “At least I got a stone to play with –” But then she dropped it. “Oh, shoot! Hope no one gets hurt.” She tried using her powers to bring it back up, but they weren’t working. Faith jumped. “What the HELL? They’re not working?”

Moments later, the door behind her burst open and in walked a bloodied James wearing ripped clothes. Faith almost fell off the building at the shock, but was able to maintain her coolness and saw James fall to the ground. She hurried over to him to see what had happened.

“James! Are you all right?” she asked, looking worried. “You look terrible!”

“I have been worse, trust me,” muttered James, as he was suffering a lot from his wounds on his body.

“Eh, you haven’t seen worse until you see me,” said Faith, shrugging her shoulders. “Believe it or not, but I’m really accident prone. I’m always hurting myself and getting myself into hospital … well, least I told ya now, mate. Besides, where’ve you been? Haven’t seen you since last Friday and that was a while ago! Did you get hung over at weekend?”

James didn’t answer any of her questions. When Faith tried to read his mind, something was blocking her from doing so. And yet the harder she tried, it just wouldn’t seem to phase. When she stopped, blood trickled down her lip. She wiped it away and saw James crawling over to the edge.

“Hey, hey!” shouted Faith, blocking him from doing so. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Ending my bloody life, what’s it to you?” he said weakly, and tried pushing her out of the way, but failed to do so. “Move, Faith! I haven’t got a life anymore! My mom left and isn’t coming back, I didn’t even get the job I wanted and most of the time; I can’t remember things that have happened to me. But then I do remember through my dreams. Let me tell you, if I told you something about me … you wouldn’t believe me.”

“I’d believe anything!” she yelled, stretching out her arms to make sure he wouldn’t pass her. “I’m not letting you throw your life away because of something stupid like this. Heck, my life is a wreck as well, too, you know? But here I am trying to cool down about it and not let it get to me!” She paused for a moment when James stared at her. “If I told you something about me, then you wouldn’t believe me either.”

James’s eyes flickered yellow. Faith couldn’t tell if it was the sun or what. But then she remembered back to last weekend. Those eyes were so familiar – they belonged to a disgusting creature that she had encountered … and now she was right. It was like the demon Angelus being inside Lilac and using her as a host. It was the fact that the monster Mutator was inside James and using him as a host!

Before she could even react, Mutator grabbed her by the throat still using James’s human form and flung her right at the door. The door crashed right open and Faith went falling down the stairs into the upstairs warehouse. She could barely even move when she opened her eyes. She could feel so many wounds. Both her eyes felt swollen and were probably blacked, her arm was broken and she had sprained her ankle. It felt so much worse than the last time.

Mutator jumped to the wall and then on to the floor. Even still in James’s human form, he was still at the same amount of speed than he would in his monster form. He laughed at how weak and wounded Faith was. He sat down right next to her and using James’s voice, he began speaking to her. “You know, I always thought of humans as being weak!” he hissed. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. You seriously never knew James was my host? The poor boy wants to commit suicide because of me. And because I am who I am, I cannot let that happen.” He watched her try to rise to her feet, but couldn’t because of her broken arm. “Oh dear, seems like you’re too weak to even get up. James understands why the human race is so weak. We are united as one and as for your friend, Angelus, she won’t be able to match our power. Two souls can crush anyone in the same body. Soon, James will adapt to my ways and he’ll do anything to stop whoever wants to stop him achieving his goals. Like how his mother keeps leaving? Of how he goes unnoticed for his devoted work with his job? And even ignored by his one true friend, Faith Crest! He was crying out for help and you never paid him the attention. But then again …” He grabbed her by the throat. “You had problems of your own to attend to. You see, James is going to know every little detail of what’s happening right now. He’s a prisoner watching everything happen through his own eyes. It’s just like when he’s in control, I can see the same things go on as well.”

Faith still didn’t have any strength to speak or even move. She could only keep looking at Mutator in shock. She didn’t even know whether she should be grateful that she was still seeing James or not. It pained her even more to see Mutator using James to distract and upset her. Perhaps this was what Faith was doomed to – an early death. There had been only two prophecies that she had found in the past year that related to her. One had been of how she would fight on to become a champion and defender of the world, whilst another predicted a grim and early death. If there were one that she would have to go with right now, then it would have to be the second one.

“Still in shock, I see?” he continued to laugh and take pride in her pain. “Then stay like that! You are nothing more than a toy that needs to be broken. James is starting to realise what life is all about – there’s power. Those who use that power will destroy whatever was made. Everything born must die at one point, Crest. One such as you can understand what that means. People are meant to die, but you keep saving them. It’s quite amusing really because you didn’t take pride in what you did, as opposed to I, who took pride in taking lives.” He let Faith go back on to the floor and she coughed up even more blood. “A war is coming, Crest, but can you really even hope to stop it? You’re nothing more than a pathetic and weak child that cannot even stand up!”

But then he got the shock of his life when Faith pulled herself up to her feet and there was something strange going on with her. Her eyes had suddenly turned black and the wounds that she had once been sustaining were now healing themselves up. She clicked her broken arm to fix it, her vision was coming back into motion when both her eyes healed up and she could now stand properly on her own two feet. There was something highly unusual going on with Faith – something that had meant not to happen for many more years.

“What have you done, Faith Crest?” hissed Mutator, who clenched James’s fists.

“My name isn’t Faith,” said a darker voice than Faith’s, but coming out of Faith’s mouth. She cracked her neck and then fingers. Her eyes were now dark and there was a great anger surging through her veins. “My name is Shadow.”

She rushed forward and punched Mutator right in the face to kick him constantly in the face and stomach. Mutator didn’t have anytime to react whatsoever. He went crashing through the wall and into another room. In the meantime, Shadow looked at herself. She examined her body and breathed calmly.

“I feel so much power surging through me right now,” she said, hardly showing any emotion. “The power … it’s so immense … this must be what happened to me before. Not being able to use my powers and so this must be the other side.” She looked to see Mutator rising to his feet and she smiled nastily. “The dark side of me, Shadow.”

“I never expected to see a dark side of you, Crest,” laughed Mutator, who jumped right back into the other room. “Then again, it must be literally psychic pains for you. You caught me by surprise then, Shadow. I must say, your power is quick and cunning as well as immense. I’ve never felt so alive!”

“You suggest an alliance,” hissed Shadow, clenching her fists. “Forget it! I was going to go to Russia to find you!” She pointed right at him. “You forced this to happen to me. I’m now Shadow and Faith? Well, let’s just say that the old me is gone for a little rest because the dark and dangerous side is just starting to warm up!” The pair rushed at each other to fight hand-to-hand combat. “You think using James would scare me, but now I fear nothing! You think that you can win by using James and saying he finally understands what you know. Let me tell you something …” She jumped back from him. “There is a difference between you and I! Whilst you feed off a host, I am actually a darker side to such a kind and light person. At least I have the guts to admit that and you feed off humanity to satisfy your needs!”

Mutator punched her in the face, but it didn’t do much damage. The fight would have looked like that it was going to be taken outside, but fortunately, it wasn’t. Shadow sent a box telekinetically flying at Mutator, which forced him into a wall and made him close to consciousness. Shadow crossed her arms feeling satisfied with what had happened so far, but knew that she wouldn’t continue on. After all, there was still James to care for her. Her anger was only directed at Mutator after all.

She bent down to him and grabbed him by the shirt. “You’re only going to survive now because there’s a part of me deep down that cares for my best friend,” she glared coldly. “Do us both a favour and get the hell outta here while you can because I’ll find you if you don’t!”

Mutator got to his feet and ran up the stairs to disappear. Shadow breathed again and knew that she had to calm down. Even though she was darker than her normal self, Shadow still had similarities to Faith. They both had anger issues and would normally take a while to calm down. Shadow sat down and thought about what would have happened if she hadn’t let Mutator go free.

It doesn’t matter anymore, she thought without much care about it. The important part is that I showed Mutator that my dark side is really dangerous! She laughed at that thought and then rose to her feet again to wipe the dust off her clothes. However, when she was up again, there was only one person that had bared witness to the whole thing.

Rene appeared to her again and was shaking his head. “I can’t believe this,” he whispered. “You … of all people … I thought that you was a good person, Faith! Why didn’t you tell me that you had a dark side? Oh, wait! Or should I say SHADOW?” His voice was loud and full of anger.

Shadow just stood there looking emotionless. She sighed and then the physical features of Faith began to appear again. When they had done, she looked like she was going to fall. However, Rene caught her in his arms. She opened her eyes and a tear trickled down her face. “I … didn’t know … anything,” she answered, as Rene sat down with her in his arms. “Patricia never said – I don’t think she knew. I think that there was only one person who did know …” She groaned when she felt several bruises to her ribs.

Rene lifted her top a little and looked concerned. “You’re going home now because Patricia’s been worried sick and I’ve been the only one able to go after you considering Angelus did a runner, Patricia’s hurt and Filden and Dawn have school,” he said. “I would’ve thought that Kamui would have come after you, but … let’s just say that I didn’t want to take any chances.”

“Kamui …” whispered Faith. “I can’t see him anymore. I told him that he was aligned to the darkness. I was going … to help him free himself. But now look at me! I’m in the same position and I don’t think that the problem’s going to be cured overnight.”

“Don’t worry bout Kamui, he’ll be fine,” grinned Rene. “Knowing him, he’d be getting ready to see you again.”

In a dark corner, where Kamui was hidden, he was thinking to himself. I hope Rene isn’t becoming a mind reader because he’s really guessing me out lately, he thought. I would never have thought a dark side would be hidden in that sweet and kind girl, Faith. What does this mean now? Can’t think about her right now because I have Angelus to catch now …

Hallways, Haven Middle School

“It’s lucky that Faith and Rene got the day off, isn’t it?” assumed Dawn, as she and Filden came to her locker. They had already been to Filden’s locker and now they were emptying their books because they’d be going home soon. “There’s a world crisis going on, we know a secret we shouldn’t know and gosh, it’s so hard to keep it!” She watched students pass her by and sighed. “If only we could be like them …”

“So?” shrugged Filden, who caught her attention. “We have the coolest best friends in the world. Besides, I told you that I was going to try out for the basketball team today, right?” Dawn nodded. “Well! Coach Michel told me that I’m in even before he put up the sheet! Isn’t that awesome?”

Dawn slammed her locker shut and looked at him with a smile on her face. “There’s no need to carry on impressing me,” she said. “I know what’s going on. You like me and I like you – it’s as simple as that.” Filden looked shocked, but she continued to speak. “Girls are really smart when it comes to relationships. Anyway, if you’re still looking for a date to the dance, then I’m always available.”

“Absolutely,” he nodded and looked like he was going to faint. “I’ll pick you up.”

“Great!” she smiled brightly. “Well, let’s just try the dance for now and see where it takes us from there then.” She patted Filden on the shoulder and then walked off.

“I just got a date with Dawn Turner, the hottest girl in school!” he screamed out loud when she was out of hearing distance. Some guys congratulated him; other girls were pretending that it didn’t matter.

New York Rooftops

“What now, I wonder?” said Rene out loud.

“I guess we go to Russia,” said Faith, as she crossed her arms and was trying to gather her thoughts together. My dark side was emerging from the moment I woke up. Is this something I couldn’t predict? I just don’t understand anything anymore. Can I really help Kamui? Am I the one destined to save the world? I remember what that man said to me a year ago when I arrived here. And so she recited the line. “Save Harmony, save the world.”

“Huh?” asked Rene.

“Nothing,” muttered Faith, then staring at him. After all, it was actually a future version of Rene from ten years into the future that had appeared to her one year ago when she had arrived in New York. You still have yet to understand what else you can do.